Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving downlink control information for repeater

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method of a repeater receiving the downlink control information through an R-PDCCH from a base station according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: determining a candidate location on which an R-PDCCH is transmitted at first and second slots of a downlink sub-frame; monitoring whether the R-PDCCH is transmitted on the determined candidate location; and receiving the downlink control information included in the R-PDCCH when the transmission of the R-PDCCH is monitored, wherein the R-PDCCH candidate location is set as a VRB set including VRBs of N number and a candidate location of one R-PDCCH for a high combination level can be composed of a combination of two adjacent candidate locations of the R-PDCCH candidate locations for a low combination level.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following description relates to a wireless communication system andmore particularly to a method and apparatus for transmitting andreceiving downlink control information of a relay (or Relay Node (RN)).

BACKGROUND ART

FIG. 1 illustrates a relay node (RN) 120 and User Equipments (UEs) 131and 132 that are present in an area of a single base station or eNode B(eNB) 110 in a wireless communication system 100. The RN 120 may deliverdata received from the eNodeB 110 to the UE 132 in the area of the RN120 and deliver data received from the UE 132 in the area of the RN 120to the eNodeB 110. In addition, the RN 120 may support extension of ahigh data rate area, an increase in the communication quality of a celledge, and provision of communication to an area outside a service areaof the eNodeB or the inside of a building. FIG. 1 illustrates that a UEsuch as the UE 131 which receives a service directly from the eNodeB(hereinafter referred to as a Macro-UE or M-UE) or a UE such as the UE132 which receives a service from the RN 120 (hereinafter referred to asa Relay-UE or R-UE).

A radio link between an eNodeB and an RN is referred to as a backhaullink. A link from an eNodeB to an RN is referred to as a backhauldownlink and a link from an RN to an eNodeB is referred to as a backhauluplink. A radio link between an RN and a UE is referred to as an accesslink. A link from an RN to a UE is referred to as an access downlink anda link from a UE to an RN is referred to as an access uplink.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

The eNodeB may transmit downlink control information (DCI) of the RN tothe RN through an RN-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in abackhaul downlink subframe. The DCI transmitted through the PDCCH mayinclude downlink (DL) assignment information indicating resourceallocation of downlink to the RN and uplink (UL) grant informationresource allocation of uplink from the RN.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method forefficiently transmitting downlink allocation information and uplinkgrant information of a relay (or Relay Node (RN)) in a backhaul downlinksubframe. Another object of the present invention is to provide a methodfor efficiently determining a search space that is set for R-PDCCHdetection by a relay.

Objects of the present invention are not limited to those describedabove and other objects will be clearly understood by a person havingordinary knowledge in the art from the following description.

Technical Solution

In order to solve the above problem, a method for a relay to receivedownlink control information from a base station through aRelay-Physical Downlink Control Channel (R-PDCCH) according to anembodiment of the present invention may include determining a candidateposition at which the R-PDCCH is transmitted in a first slot and asecond slot of a downlink subframe, monitoring whether or not theR-PDCCH is being transmitted at the determined candidate position, andreceiving, upon determining through the monitoring that the R-PDCCH isbeing transmitted, the downlink control information included in theR-PDCCH, wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position may be set as a VirtualResource Block (VRB) set including N VRBs and one candidate R-PDCCHposition of a higher aggregation level may include a combination of 2adjacent candidate positions among candidate R-PDCCH positions of alower aggregation level.

In order to solve the above problem, a relay for performing downlinksignal in a wireless communication system according to anotherembodiment of the present invention may include a reception module forreceiving a downlink signal from a base station, a transmission modulefor transmitting an uplink signal to the base station, and a processorfor controlling the relay including the reception module and thetransmission module, wherein the processor may be configured todetermine a candidate position at which a Relay-Physical DownlinkControl Channel (R-PDCCH) is transmitted in a first slot and a secondslot of a downlink subframe, to monitor whether or not the R-PDCCH isbeing transmitted at the determined candidate position, and to receive,upon determining through the monitoring that the R-PDCCH is beingtransmitted, the downlink control information included in the R-PDCCHthrough the reception module, wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position maybe set as a Virtual Resource Block (VRB) set including N VRBs and onecandidate R-PDCCH position of a higher aggregation level may include acombination of 2 adjacent candidate positions among candidate R-PDCCHpositions of a lower aggregation level.

The following features may be commonly applied to the embodimentsaccording to the present invention.

The VRBs of the VRB set may be assigned numbers {n₀, n₁, . . . ,n_(N-1)}, starting from a lowest VRB index and ending with a highest VRBindex and respective candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregation levels Lmay be determined as VRBs of {n₀, n₁, . . . , N_(L−1)}, {n_(L), n_(L+1),. . . , n_(2L-1)}, {n_(2L), n_(2L+2), . . . , n_(3L+1)}, . . . {n_(N-L),n_(N-L+)1, . . . , n_(N-1)}.

The R-PDCCH may not be interleaved with another R-PDCCH.

The candidate R-PDCCH position may be determined according todistributed VRB-to-Physical Resource Block (PRB) mapping.

The VRB set and the VRB-to-PRB mapping may be set by a higher layersignal.

The downlink control information may be downlink allocation informationincluded in an R-PDCCH transmitted in the first slot or uplink grantinformation included in an R-PDCCH transmitted in the second slot.

The same VRB set may be set in the first slot and the second slot of thedownlink subframe.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a methodfor efficiently transmitting downlink allocation information and uplinkgrant information of a relay (or Relay Node (RN)) in a backhaul downlinksubframe. In addition, according to the present invention, it ispossible to provide a method for efficiently determining a search spacethat is set for R-PDCCH detection by a relay.

Advantages of the present invention are not limited to those describedabove and other advantages will be clearly understood by a person havingordinary knowledge in the art from the following description.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system including an eNodeB,an RN, a UE;

FIG. 2 illustrates a structure of a radio frame used in a 3GPP LTEsystem;

FIG. 3 illustrates a resource grid in a downlink slot;

FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of a downlink subframe;

FIG. 5 illustrates a structure of an uplink subframe;

FIG. 6 illustrates a configuration of a wireless communication system;

FIG. 7 illustrates a downlink reference signal pattern defined in a 3GPPLTE system;

FIG. 8 illustrates reference signal transmission in an uplink subframe;

FIG. 9 illustrates exemplary implementation of transmission andreception functions of an FDD mode RN;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of RN resource division;

FIG. 11 illustrates a downlink resource allocation type;

FIG. 12 illustrates a mapping relationship between VRB indices and PRBindices;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example in which a downlink allocation and anuplink grant are transmitted in a single backhaul downlink subframe;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which interleaving is applied to anR-PDCCH;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example in which interleaving having the samestructure is applied to a downlink allocation and an uplink grant;

FIG. 16 illustrates an example in which one R-PDCCH is transmitted usingone RB when one RBG includes 4 RBs;

FIG. 17 illustrates an example in which the aggregation level is n suchthat one R-PDCCH is transmitted using a plurality of RBs (n RBs);

FIG. 18 illustrates an example in which an RBG set allocated to a searchspace of a higher aggregation level is constructed of a subset of an RBGset allocated to a search space of a lower aggregation level;

FIG. 19 illustrates RBGs that are allocated to the search spaces ofaggregation levels 1, 2, and 4;

FIGS. 20 and 21 illustrate a method for configuring an R-PDCCH searchspace according to the present invention;

FIGS. 22 and 23 illustrate RBs allocated to an R-PDCCH search space;

FIGS. 24 to 27 illustrate a method for configuring an R-PDCCH searchspace according to the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for transmittingand receiving an R-PDCCH; and

FIG. 29 illustrates a configuration of an RN according to an embodimentof the present invention.

BEST MODE

The embodiments described below are provided by combining components andfeatures of the present invention in specific forms. The components orfeatures of the present invention can be considered optional unlessexplicitly stated otherwise. The components or features may beimplemented without being combined with other components or features.The embodiments of the present invention may also be provided bycombining some of the components and/or features. The order of theoperations described below in the embodiments of the present inventionmay be changed. Some components or features of one embodiment may beincluded in another embodiment or may be replaced with correspondingcomponents or features of another embodiment.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described focusingmainly on the data communication relationship between a terminal and aBase Station (BS). The BS is a terminal node in a network which performscommunication directly with the terminal. Specific operations which havebeen described as being performed by the BS may also be performed by anupper node as needed.

That is, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the BS orany other network node may perform various operations for communicationwith terminals in a network including a number of network nodesincluding BSs. Here, the term “base station (BS)” may be replaced withanother term such as “fixed station”, “Node B”, “eNode B (eNB)”, or“access point”. The term “relay” may be replaced with another term“Relay Node (RN)” or “Relay Station (RS)”. The term “terminal” may alsobe replaced with another term such as “User Equipment (UE)”, “MobileStation (MS)”, “Mobile Subscriber Station (MSS)”, or “Subscriber Station(SS)”.

Specific terms used in the following description are provided for betterunderstanding of the present invention and can be replaced with otherterms without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

In some instances, known structures and devices are omitted or shown inblock diagram form, focusing on important features of the structures anddevices, so as not to obscure the concept of the present invention. Thesame reference numbers will be used throughout this specification torefer to the same or like parts.

The embodiments of the present invention can be supported by standarddocuments of at least one of the IEEE 802 system, the 3GPP system, the3GPP LTE system, the LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system, and the 3GPP2 systemwhich are wireless access systems. That is, steps or portions that arenot described in the embodiments of the present invention for the sakeof clearly describing the spirit of the present invention can besupported by the standard documents. For all terms used in thisdisclosure, reference can be made to the standard documents.

Technologies described below can be used in various wireless accesssystems such as a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, aFrequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) system, a Time DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA) system, an Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA) system, and a Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess (SC-FDMA) system. CDMA may be implemented with a radio technologysuch as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) or CDMA2000. TDMA maybe implemented with a radio technology such as Global System for Mobilecommunication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), or EnhancedData rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). OFDMA may be implemented with aradio technology such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE802.20, or Evolved-UTRA (E-UTRA). UTRA is a part of Universal MobileTelecommunication System (UMTS). 3rd Generation Partnership Project(3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a part of Evolved-UMTS (E-UMTS) thatuses E-UTRA. 3GPP LTE employs OFDMA for downlink and employs SC-FDMA foruplink. LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) is an evolution of 3GPP LTE. WiMAX can beexplained by IEEE 802.16e standard (WirelessMAN-OFDMA Reference System)and advanced IEEE 802.16m standard (WirelessMAN-OFDMA advanced system).Although the present invention will be described below mainly withreference to 3GPP LTE and 3GPP LTE-A systems for the sake ofclarification, the technical spirit of the present invention is notlimited to the 3GPP LTE and LTE-A systems.

FIG. 2 illustrates the structure of a radio frame used in the 3GPP LTEsystem. A radio frame includes 10 subframes and each subframe includes 2slots in the time domain. A unit time in which one subframe istransmitted is defined as a Transmission Time Interval (TTI). Forexample, one subframe may have a length of 1 ms and one slot may have alength of 0.5 ms. One slot may include a plurality of OFDM symbols inthe time domain. Because the 3GPP LTE system uses OFDMA in downlink, anOFDM symbol represents one symbol period. One symbol may be referred toas an SC-FDMA symbol or a symbol period in uplink. A Resource Block (RB)is a resource allocation unit which includes a plurality of consecutivesubcarriers in a slot. This radio frame structure is purely exemplary.Thus, the number of subframes included in a radio frame, the number ofslots included in a subframe, or the number of OFDM symbols included ina slot may vary in various ways.

FIG. 3 illustrates a resource grid in a downlink slot. Although onedownlink slot includes 7 OFDM symbols in the time domain and one RBincludes 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain in the example of FIG.3, the present invention is not limited to this example. For example,one slot may include 6 OFDM symbols when extended CPs are applied whileone slot includes 7 OFDM symbols when normal Cyclic Prefixes (CPs) areapplied. Each element on the resource grid is referred to as a resourceelement (RE). One resource block (RB) includes 12×7 resource elements.The number of RBs (NDL) included in one downlink slot is determinedbased on a downlink transmission bandwidth. The structure of the uplinkslot may be identical to the structure of the downlink slot.

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of a downlink subframe. Up to the first3 OFDM symbols of a first slot within one subframe correspond to acontrol area to which a control channel is allocated. The remaining OFDMsymbols correspond to a data area to which a Physical Downlink SharedChannel (PDSCH) is allocated. Downlink control channels used in the 3GPPLTE system include, for example, a Physical Control Format IndicatorChannel (PCFICH), a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and aPhysical Hybrid automatic repeat request Indicator Channel (PHICH). ThePCFICH is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol of a subframe andincludes information regarding the number of OFDM symbols used totransmit a control channel in the subframe. The PHICH includes a HARQACK/NACK signal as a response to uplink transmission. Controlinformation transmitted through the PDCCH is referred to as DownlinkControl Information (DCI). The DCI includes uplink or downlinkscheduling information or includes an uplink transmission power controlcommand for a UE group. The PDCCH may include a resource allocation andtransmission format of a Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH), resourceallocation information of an Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH), paginginformation of a Paging Channel (PCH), system information of the DL-SCH,information regarding resource allocation of a higher layer controlmessage such as a Random Access Response (RAR) that is transmitted inthe PDSCH, a set of transmission power control commands for individualUEs in a UE group, transmission power control information, andinformation regarding activation of Voice over IP (VoIP). A plurality ofPDCCHs may be transmitted within the control area. The UE may monitorthe plurality of PDCCHs. The PDCCHs are transmitted in an aggregation ofone or more consecutive Control Channel Elements (CCEs). Each CCE is alogical allocation unit that is used to provide the PDCCHs at a codingrate based on the state of a radio channel. The CCE corresponds to aplurality of resource element groups.

The format of the PDCCH and the number of available bits are determinedbased on a correlation between the number of CCEs and a coding rateprovided by the CCEs. The number of CCEs that are used to transmit aPDCCH is referred to as an aggregation level. The CCE aggregation levelis a CCE unit for searching for a PDCCH. The size of the CCE aggregationlevel is defined as the number of adjacent CCEs. For example, the CCEaggregation level may be 1, 2, 4, or 8.

The base station (eNB) determines the PDCCH format according to a DCIthat is transmitted to the UE, and adds a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)to control information. The CRC is masked with a Radio Network TemporaryIdentifier (RNTI) according to the owner or usage of the PDCCH. If thePDCCH is associated with a specific UE, the CRC may be masked with acell-RNTI (C-RNTI) of the UE. If the PDCCH is associated with a pagingmessage, the CRC may be masked with a paging indicator identifier(P-RNTI). If the PDCCH is associated with system information (morespecifically, a system information block (SIB)), the CRC may be maskedwith a system information identifier and a system information RNTI(SI-RNTI). To indicate a random access response that is a response totransmission of a random access preamble from the UE, the CRC may bemasked with a random access-RNTI (RA-RNTI).

FIG. 5 illustrates the structure of an uplink subframe. The uplinksubframe may be divided into a control area and a data area in thefrequency domain. A Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) includinguplink control information is allocated to the control area. A PhysicalUplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) including user data is allocated to thedata area. In order to maintain single carrier properties, one UE doesnot simultaneously transmit the PUCCH and the PUSCH. A PUCCH associatedwith one UE is allocated to an RB pair in a subframe. RBs belonging tothe RB pair occupy different subcarriers in two slots. That is, the RBpair allocated to the PUCCH is “frequency-hopped” at a slot boundary.

Modeling of Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) System

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration of a wirelesscommunication system having multiple antennas.

As shown in FIG. 6( a), if the number of transmit antennas is increasedto N_(T) and the number of receive antennas is increased to N_(R), atheoretical channel transmission capacity is increased in proportion tothe number of antennas unlike when a plurality of antennas is used onlyin a transmitter or a receiver. Accordingly, it is possible to improvetransfer rate and to remarkably improve frequency efficiency. As thechannel transmission capacity is increased, the transfer rate may betheoretically increased by the product of the maximum transfer rate R₀when a single antenna is used and a rate increase ratio R_(i).

R _(i)=min(N _(T) ,N _(R))  Expression 1

For example, in an MIMO system using four transmit antennas and fourreceive antennas, it is possible to theoretically acquire a transferrate which is four times that of a single antenna system. Aftertheoretical capacity increase of the multi-antenna system was proven inthe mid-90s, various technologies for actually improving data transferrate have been vigorously studied. In addition, some of suchtechnologies have already been applied to various wireless communicationstandards such as third-generation mobile communication andnext-generation wireless LAN.

Multi-antenna related studies have been conducted in various aspects,such as study of information theory associated with multi-antennacommunication capacity calculation in various channel environments andmultiple access environments, study of wireless channel measurement andmodel derivation of a multi-antenna system, study of time-spaceprocessing technology for improving transfer rate.

The communication method of the MIMO system will be described in moredetail using mathematical modeling. In the above system, it is assumedthat N_(T) transmit antennas and N_(R) receive antennas are present.

The maximum number of pieces of information that can be transmittedthrough transmission signals is N_(T) if N_(T) transmit antennas arepresent. The transmitted information may be expressed as follows.

s=└s ₁ , s ₂ , . . . , s _(N) _(T) ┘^(T)  Expression 2

The transmitted information S₁, S₂, . . . , S_(N) _(T) may havedifferent transmission powers. If the respective transmission powers areP₁, P₂, . . . , P_(N) _(T) , the transmitted information with adjustedpowers may be expressed as follows.

ŝ=[ŝ ₁ , ŝ ₂ , . . . , ŝ _(N) _(T) ]^(T) =[P ₁ s ₁ , P ₂ s ₂ , . . . , P_(N) _(T) s _(N) _(T) ]^(T)  Expression 3

In addition, Ŝ may be expressed using a diagonal matrix P of thetransmission powers as follows.

$\begin{matrix}{\hat{s} = {{\begin{bmatrix}P_{1} & \; & \; & 0 \\\; & P_{2} & \; & \; \\\; & \; & \ddots & \; \\0 & \; & \; & P_{N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}s_{1} \\s_{2} \\\vdots \\s_{N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}} = {Ps}}} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 4}\end{matrix}$

Let us consider that the N_(T) actually transmitted signals x₁, x₂, . .. , x_(N) _(T) are configured by applying a weight matrix W to theinformation vector Ŝ with the adjusted transmission powers. The weightmatrix W serves to appropriately distribute the transmitted informationto each antenna according to the state of a transport channel or thelike. x₁, x₂, . . . , s_(N) _(T) may be expressed using the vector X asfollows.

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{x = \begin{bmatrix}x_{1} \\x_{2} \\\vdots \\x_{i} \\\vdots \\x_{N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}} \\{= {\begin{bmatrix}w_{11} & w_{12} & \ldots & w_{1N_{T}} \\w_{21} & w_{22} & \ldots & w_{2N_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\w_{i\; 1} & w_{i\; 2} & \ldots & w_{{iN}_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\w_{N_{T}1} & w_{N_{T}2} & \ldots & w_{N_{T}N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}{\hat{s}}_{1} \\{\hat{s}}_{2} \\\vdots \\{\hat{s}}_{j} \\\vdots \\{\hat{s}}_{N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}}} \\{{= {{W\hat{s}} = {WPs}}},}\end{matrix} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 5}\end{matrix}$

where w_(ij) denotes a weight between an i-th transmit antenna and j-thinformation. W is also referred to as a precoding matrix.

If N_(R) receive antennas are present, respective received signals y₁,y₂, . . . , y_(N) _(R) of the antennas are expressed as follows.

y=[y ₁ , y ₂ , . . . , y _(N) _(R) ]^(T)  Expression 6

If channels are modeled in the MIMO wireless communication system, thechannels may be distinguished according to transmit and receive antennaindexes. Let h_(ij) represent a channel from the transmit antenna j tothe receive antenna i. Note that the indexes of the receive antennasprecede the indexes of the transmit antennas in h_(ij).

FIG. 6( b) is a diagram showing channels from the N_(T) transmitantennas to the receive antenna i. The channels may be combined andexpressed in the form of a vector and a matrix. In FIG. 6( b), thechannels from the N_(T) transmit antennas to the receive antenna i maybe expressed as follows.

h _(i) ^(T) =[h _(i1) , h _(i2) , . . . , h _(iN) _(T) ]  Expression 7

Accordingly, all the channels from the N_(T) transmit antennas to theN_(R) receive antennas may be expressed as follows.

Expression 8

$H = {\begin{bmatrix}h_{1}^{T} \\h_{2}^{T} \\\vdots \\h_{i}^{T} \\\vdots \\h_{N_{R}}^{T}\end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix}h_{11} & h_{12} & \ldots & h_{1N_{T}} \\h_{21} & h_{22} & \ldots & h_{2N_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\h_{i\; 1} & h_{i\; 2} & \ldots & h_{{iN}_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\h_{N_{R}1} & h_{N_{R}2} & \ldots & h_{N_{R}N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}}$

An Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) is added to the actual channelsafter the channels undergo a channel matrix H. The AWGN n₁, n₂, . . . ,n_(N) _(R) added to the N_(T) transmit antennas may be expressed asfollows.

n=[n ₁ , n ₂ , . . . , n _(N) _(R) ]^(T)  Expression 9

Through the above-described mathematical modeling, the received signalsmay be expressed as follows.

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{y = \begin{bmatrix}y_{1} \\y_{2} \\\vdots \\y_{i} \\\vdots \\y_{N_{R}}\end{bmatrix}} \\{= {{\begin{bmatrix}h_{11} & h_{12} & \ldots & h_{1N_{T}} \\h_{21} & h_{22} & \ldots & h_{2N_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\h_{i\; 1} & h_{i\; 2} & \ldots & h_{{iN}_{T}} \\\vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\h_{N_{R}1} & h_{N_{R}2} & \ldots & h_{N_{R}N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix}x_{1} \\x_{2} \\\vdots \\x_{j} \\\vdots \\x_{N_{T}}\end{bmatrix}} + {\begin{bmatrix}n_{1} \\n_{2} \\\vdots \\n_{i} \\\vdots \\n_{N_{R}}\end{bmatrix}n}}} \\{= {{Hx} + {n.}}}\end{matrix} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 10}\end{matrix}$

The number of rows and columns of the channel matrix H indicating thechannel state is determined by the number of transmit and receiveantennas. The number of rows of the channel matrix H is equal to thenumber N_(R) of receive antennas and the number of columns thereof isequal to the number N_(T) of transmit antennas. That is, the channelmatrix H is an N_(R)×N_(T) matrix.

The rank of the matrix is defined as the smallest number of rows orcolumns which are independent of each other. Accordingly, the rank ofthe matrix cannot be greater than the number of rows or columns of thematrix. The rank rank(H) of the channel matrix H is restricted asfollows.

rank(H)≦min(N _(T) ,N _(R))  Expression 11

When the matrix is subjected to Eigen value decomposition, the rank maybe defined as the number of Eigen values excluding 0. Similarly, therank may also be defined as the number of singular values excluding 0when the matrix is subjected to singular value decomposition.Accordingly, the physical meaning of the rank in the channel matrix maybe considered the maximum number of different pieces of information thatcan be transmitted in a given channel.

Reference Signal (RS)

In a wireless communication system, a signal may be distorted duringtransmission since packets are transmitted through a radio channel. Inorder to enable a receiving side to correctly receive the distortedsignal, distortion of the received signal should be corrected usingchannel information. A method of transmitting a signal, of which boththe transmitting side and the receiving side are aware, and determiningchannel information using the degree of distortion that has occurredwhen the signal is received through a channel is mainly used todetermine the channel information. This signal is referred to as a pilotsignal or a reference signal (RS).

When data is transmitted and received using multiple antennas, channelstates between the transmit antennas and the receive antennas should bedetermined to correctly receive the signal. Accordingly, an individualRS should be present for each transmit antenna.

A downlink RS is classified into a Common RS (CRS) shared among all UEsin a cell and a Dedicated RS (DRS) only for a specific UE. Informationfor channel estimation and demodulation may be provided using such RSs.

The receiving side (UE) may estimate the state of a channel from the CRSand may feed an indicator associated with the quality of the channel,such as a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), a Precoding Matrix Index(PMI) and/or a Rank Indicator (RI), back to the transmitting side(eNodeB). The CRS may also be referred to as a cell-specific RS.Alternatively, an RS associated with the feedback of Channel StateInformation (CSI) such as CQI/PMI/RI may be separately defined as aCSI-RS.

The DRS may be transmitted through REs when data demodulation of a PDSCHis necessary. The UE may receive information indicating the presence orabsence of the DRS from a higher layer and receive information as towhether or not the DRS is valid only when a PDSCH is mapped to the DRS.The DRS may also be referred to as a UE-specific RS or a Demodulation RS(DMRS).

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a pattern of mapping of CRSs and DRSs onto adownlink RB pair defined in the existing 3GPP LTE system (e.g.,Release-8). The downlink RB pair as a mapping unit of the RSs may beexpressed in units of one subframe on the time domain×12 subcarriers onthe frequency domain. That is, on the time axis, one RB pair has alength of 14 OFDM symbols in the case of the normal CP (FIG. 7( a)) andhas a length of 12 OFDM symbols in the case of the extended CP (FIG. 7(b)).

FIG. 7 shows the locations of RSs on an RB pair in the system in whichan eNodeB supports four transmit antennas. In FIG. 7, Resource Elements(REs) denoted by “0”, “1”, “2” and “3” indicate the locations of CRSs ofthe antenna port indexes 0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively. In FIG. 7, the REdenoted by “D” indicates the location of a DRS.

Hereinafter, the CRS will be described in detail. The CRS is used toestimate the channel of a physical antenna and is distributed over theentire band as an RS which can be commonly received by all UEs locatedwithin a cell. The CRS may be used for CSI acquisition and datademodulation.

The CRS is defined in various formats according to the antennaconfiguration of the transmitting side (eNodeB). The 3GPP LTE (e.g.,Release-8) system supports various antenna configurations, and adownlink signal transmitting side (eNodeB) has three antennaconfigurations such as a single antenna, two transmit antennas and fourtransmit antennas. When the eNodeB performs single-antenna transmission,RSs for a single antenna port are arranged. When the eNodeB performstwo-antenna transmission, RSs for two antenna ports are arrangedaccording to a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and/or FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (FDM) scheme. That is, RSs for two antenna portsare arranged in different time resources and/or different frequencyresources such that the RSs for the two antenna ports can bedistinguished from each other. In addition, when the eNodeB performsfour-antenna transmission, RSs for four antenna ports are arrangedaccording to the TDM/FDM scheme. The channel information estimated bythe downlink signal receiving side (UE) through the CRSs may be used todemodulate data transmitted using a transmission scheme such as singleantenna transmission, transmit diversity, closed-loop spatialmultiplexing, open-loop spatial multiplexing, or Multi-User MIMO(MU-MIMO).

When RSs are transmitted through a certain antenna port in the case inwhich multiple antennas are supported, the RSs are transmitted at thelocations of REs specified according to the RS pattern and no signal istransmitted at the locations of REs specified for another antenna port.

The rule of mapping the CRSs to the RBs is defined by Expression 12.

$\begin{matrix}{{k = {{6m} + {\left( {v + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 6}}}l = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix}{0,{N_{symb}^{DL} - 3}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} \in \left\{ {0,1} \right\}} \\1 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} \in \left\{ {2,3} \right\}}\end{matrix}m} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{14mu},{{{2 \cdot N_{RB}^{DL}} - {1m^{\prime}}} = {{m + N_{RB}^{{m\; {ax}},{DL}} - {N_{RB}^{DL}v}} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix}0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} = 0}} \\3 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} \neq 0}} \\3 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{1\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} = 0}} \\0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{1\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} \neq 0}} \\{3\left( {n_{s}{mod}\; 2} \right)} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = 2} \\{3 + {3\left( {n_{s}{mod}\; 2} \right)}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = 3}\end{matrix}v_{shift}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 6}} \right.}}} \right.} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 12}\end{matrix}$

In Expression 12, k denotes a subcarrier index, 1 denotes a symbolindex, and p denotes an antenna port index. N_(symb) ^(DL) denotes thenumber of OFDM symbols of one downlink slot, N_(RB) ^(DL) denotes thenumber of RBs allocated to the downlink, n_(s) denotes a slot index, andN_(ID) ^(cell) denotes a cell ID. “mod” indicates a modulo operation.The location of the RS in the frequency domain depends on a valueV_(shift). Since the value V_(shif) depends on the cell ID, the locationof the RS has a frequency shift value which is different for each cell.

More specifically, in order to increase channel estimation performancethrough the CRSs, the locations of the CRSs in the frequency domain maybe shifted so as to be changed according to the cells. For example, ifRSs are located at intervals of three subcarriers, RSs may be arrangedat 3k-th subcarriers in one cell while RSs may be arranged at (3k+1)-thsubcarriers in another cell. From the viewpoint of one antenna port, RSsare arranged at intervals of 6 REs (that is, at intervals of 6subcarriers) in the frequency domain while being separated from REs, onwhich RSs allocated to another antenna port are arranged, by 3 REs inthe frequency domain.

In addition, power boosting may be applied to CRSS. Power boostingindicates that power of REs other than REs allocated for RSs among theREs of one OFDM symbol is used to transmit RSs with higher power.

In the time domain, RSs are arranged at specific time intervals,starting from a symbol index (l=0) of each slot. The time intervalbetween each RS is defined differently according to the CP length. RSsare located at symbol indexes 0 and 4 of the slot in the case of thenormal CP and are located at symbol indexes 0 and 3 of the slot in thecase of the extended CP. RSs for only up to two antenna ports aredefined in one OFDM symbol. Accordingly, in the case of four-transmitantenna transmission, RSs for the antenna ports 0 and 1 are located atsymbol indexes 0 and 4 (symbol indexes 0 and 3 in the case of theextended CP) of the slot and RSs for the antenna ports 2 and 3 arelocated at the symbol index 1 of the slot. The frequency locations ofthe RSs for the antenna ports 2 and 3 in the frequency domain areswitched with each other in the second slot.

In order to support spectrum efficiency higher than that of the existing3GPP LTE (e.g., Release-8) system, a system (e.g., an LTE-A system)having an extended antenna configuration may be designed. The extendedantenna configuration may be, for example, an 8-transmit-antennaconfiguration. A system having the extended antenna configuration needsto support UEs which operate in the existing antenna configuration, thatis, needs to support backward compatibility. Accordingly, it isnecessary to support an RS pattern according to the existing antennaconfiguration and to design a new RS pattern for an additional antennaconfiguration. If CRSs for new antenna ports are added to the systemhaving the existing antenna configuration, there is a problem in that RSoverhead is significantly increased, thereby reducing data transferrate. In consideration of such circumstances, an LTE-A (Advanced) systemwhich is an evolution of the 3GPP LTE system may adopt additional RSs(CSI-RSs) for measuring the CSI for the new antenna ports.

Hereinafter, the DRS will be described in detail.

The DRS (or the UE-specific RS) is used to demodulate data. A precodingweight used for a specific UE when multi-antenna transmission isperformed is also used for an RS without change so as to allow the UE toestimate an equivalent channel, into which a transfer channel and theprecoding weight transmitted from each transmit antenna are combined,when the UE receives the RSs.

The existing 3GPP LTE system (e.g., Release-8) supports transmission ofup to 4 transmit antennas and defines the DRS for Rank 1 beamforming.The DRS for Rank 1 beamforming is also represented by an RS for antennaport index 5. The rule of mapping of the DRS onto an RB is defined byExpressions 13 and 14. Expression 13 represents the mapping rule for thenormal CP and Expression 14 represents the mapping rule for the extendedCP.

$\begin{matrix}{{k = {{\left( k^{\prime} \right){mod}\; N_{sc}^{RB}} + {N_{sc}^{RB} \cdot n_{PRB}}}}{k^{\prime} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix}{{4m^{\prime}} + v_{shift}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} \in \left\{ {2,3} \right\}} \\{{4m^{\prime}} + {\left( {2 + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 4}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} \in \left\{ {5,6} \right\}}\end{matrix}l} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix}3 & {l^{\prime} = 0} \\6 & {l^{\prime} = 1} \\2 & {l^{\prime} = 2} \\5 & {l^{\prime} = 3}\end{matrix}l^{\prime}} = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix}{0,1} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\{2,3} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 1}\end{matrix}m^{\prime}} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{14mu},{{{3N_{RB}^{PDSCH}} - {1v_{shift}}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 3}}} \right.} \right.} \right.}} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 13} \\{{k = {{\left( k^{\prime} \right){mod}\; N_{sc}^{RB}} + {N_{sc}^{RB} \cdot n_{PRB}}}}{k^{\prime} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix}{{3m^{\prime}} + v_{shift}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} = 4} \\{{3m^{\prime}} + {\left( {2 + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 3}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} = 1}\end{matrix}l} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix}4 & {l^{\prime} \in \left\{ {0,2} \right\}} \\1 & {l^{\prime} = 1}\end{matrix}l^{\prime}} = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix}0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\{1,2} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 1}\end{matrix}m^{\prime}} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{11mu},{{{4N_{RB}^{PDSCH}} - {1v_{shift}}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 3}}} \right.} \right.} \right.}} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 14}\end{matrix}$

In Expressions 13 and 14, k denotes a subcarrier index, l denotes asymbol index, and p denotes an antenna port index. N_(SC) ^(RB) denotesthe resource block size in the frequency domain and is expressed as thenumber of subcarriers. n_(PRB) denotes a physical resource block number.N_(RB) ^(PUSCH) denotes the bandwidth of the RB of PDSCH transmission.n_(s) denotes a slot index, and N_(ID) ^(cell) denotes a cell ID. modindicates a modulo operation.

The location of the RS in the frequency domain depends on a valueV_(shift). Since the value V_(shif) depends on the cell ID, the locationof the RS has a frequency shift value which is different for each cell.

In the LTE-A system which is an evolution of the 3GPP LTE system,high-order MIMO, multi-cell transmission, evolved MU-MIMO or the likeare under consideration. DRS-based data demodulation is being consideredin order to support efficient RS management and an advanced transmissionscheme. That is, separately from the DMRS (antenna port index 5) forRank 1 beamforming defined in the existing 3GPP LTE (e.g., Release-8)system, DMRSs for two or more layers may be defined in order to supportdata transmission through the added antenna. Such DMRSs may be definedsuch that the DMRSs are present only in RBs and layers in which downlinktransmission has been scheduled by the eNodeB.

Cooperative Multi-Point (CoMP)

According to the advanced system performance requirements of the 3GPPLTE-A system, CoMP transmission/reception technology (which may bereferred to as co-MIMO, collaborative MIMO or network MIMO) has beensuggested. The CoMP technology can increase the performance of the UElocated at a cell edge and increase average sector throughput.

In general, in a multi-cell environment whose frequency reuse factor is1, the performance of the UE located at the cell edge and average sectorthroughput may be reduced due to Inter-Cell Interference (ICI). In orderto reduce the ICI, the existing LTE system applies a method in which aUE located at a cell edge acquires appropriate throughput andperformance using a simple passive scheme such as Fractional FrequencyReuse (FFR) through UE-specific power control in an environmentrestricted by interference. However, rather than decreasing the use offrequency resources per cell, it may be preferable that the ICI bereduced or the UE reuse the ICI as a desired signal. A CoMP transmissionscheme may be applied in order to accomplish such an object.

The CoMP scheme which is applicable to downlink may be largelyclassified into a Joint Processing (JP) scheme and a CoordinatedScheduling/Beamforming (CS/CB) scheme.

In the JP scheme, each point (eNodeB) of a CoMP unit may use data. TheCoMP unit is a set of eNodeBs used in the CoMP scheme. The JP scheme maybe classified into a joint transmission scheme and a dynamic cellselection scheme.

The joint transmission scheme is a method in which a PDSCH issimultaneously transmitted from a plurality of points (all or part ofthe CoMP unit). That is, data destined for a single UE may besimultaneously transmitted from a plurality of transmission points.According to the joint transmission scheme, it is possible to coherentlyor non-coherently improve the quality of received signals and toactively eliminate interference with another UE.

The dynamic cell selection scheme is a method in which a PDSCH istransmitted from one point (of the CoMP unit). That is, data destinedfor a single UE is transmitted from one point at a specific time and theother points in the CoMP unit do not transmit data to the UE at thattime. The point for transmitting the data to the UE may be dynamicallyselected.

According to the CS/CB scheme, CoMP units may cooperatively performbeamforming of data transmission to a single UE. Here, although only theserving cell transmits data, user scheduling/beamforming may bedetermined by coordination of the cells of the CoMP unit.

In uplink, the term “coordinated multi-point reception” refers toreception of a signal transmitted by coordination of a plurality ofgeographically separated points. The CoMP scheme which is applicable touplink may be classified into Joint Reception (JR) and CoordinatedScheduling/Beamforming (CS/CB).

The JR scheme is a method in which a plurality of reception pointsreceives a signal transmitted through a PUSCH, the CS/CB scheme is amethod that only one point receives a PUSCH and userscheduling/beamforming is determined by the coordination of the cells ofthe CoMP unit.

Sounding RS (SRS)

An SRS is used to enable an eNodeB to measure channel quality to performfrequency-selective scheduling in uplink and is not associated withuplink data and/or control information transmission. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this and an SRS may also be used tosupport advanced power control or various start-up functions of UEswhich have not been recently scheduled. Examples of the start-upfunctions may include, for example, initial Modulation and Coding Scheme(MCS), initial power control for data transmission, timing advance, andfrequency-semi-selective scheduling (which is a scheduling scheme inwhich a frequency resource is selectively allocated in a first slot of asubframe and is pseudo-randomly hopped to a different frequency in asecond slot).

In addition, the SRS may be used for downlink channel qualitymeasurement on the assumption that a radio channel is reciprocal betweenuplink and downlink. This assumption is valid particularly in a TimeDivision Duplex (TDD) system in which the uplink and downlink shares thesame frequency band and are discriminated from each other in the timedomain.

A subframe through which an SRS is transmitted by a certain UE within acell is indicated by a cell-specific broadcast signaling. 4-bitcell-specific “srsSubframeConfiguration” parameter indicates 15 possibleconfigurations of the subframe through which the SRS can be transmittedwithin each radio frame. Through such configurations, it is possible toprovide flexibility enabling SRS overhead to be adjusted according to anetwork arrangement scenario. The remaining one (sixteenth)configuration of the parameters corresponds to switch-off (ordeactivation) of SRS transmission within the cell and may be suitable,for example, for a serving cell of high-speed UEs.

As shown in FIG. 8, an SRS is always transmitted in the last SC-FDMAsymbol of the configured subframe. Accordingly, an SRS and aDemodulation RS (DMRS) are located in different SC-FDMA symbols. PUSCHdata is not allowed to be transmitted in an SC-FDMA symbol designatedfor SRS transmission and thus sounding overhead does not exceedapproximately 7% even when it is highest (that is, even when SRStransmission symbols are present in all subframes).

Each SRS symbol is generated from a basic sequence (i.e., a randomsequence or Zadoff-Chu (ZC)-based sequence set) with respect to a giventime unit and frequency band and all UEs within the cell use the samebasic sequence. Here, SRS transmissions of a plurality of UEs within acell in the same time unit and the same frequency band are orthogonallydiscriminated from each other by different cyclic shifts of the basesequence allocated to the plurality of UEs. Although SRS sequences ofdifferent cells can be discriminated from each other by allocatingdifferent basic sequences to the cells, orthogonality between differentbasic sequences is not guaranteed.

Relay Node (RN)

An RN may be considered, for example, for enlargement of high data ratecoverage, improvement of group mobility, temporary network deployment,improvement of cell edge throughput and/or provision of network coverageto a new area.

Referring back to FIG. 1, an RN 120 serves to forward data transmittedor received between the eNodeB 110 and the UE 131 and two types of links(a backhaul link and an access link) having different attributes areapplied to the respective carrier frequency bands for the eNodeB 110 andthe UE 131. The eNodeB 110 may include a donor cell. The RN 120 iswirelessly connected to a radio access network through the donor cell110.

The backhaul link between the eNodeB 110 and the RN 120 may be expressedas a backhaul downlink if the backhaul link uses downlink frequencybands or downlink subframe resources and may be expressed as a backhauluplink if the backhaul link uses uplink frequency bands or uplinksubframe resources. Here, the frequency band is a resource allocated ina Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode and the subframe is a resourceallocated in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode. Similarly, the accesslink between the RN 120 and the UE(s) 131 may be expressed as an accessdownlink if the access link uses downlink frequency bands or downlinksubframe resources and may be expressed as an access uplink if theaccess link uses uplink frequency bands or uplink subframe resources.FIG. 1 shows setting of the backhaul uplink/downlink and the accessuplink/downlink of an FDD-mode RN.

The eNodeB needs to have functions such as uplink reception and downlinktransmission and the UE needs to have functions such as uplinktransmission and downlink reception. The RN needs to have all functionssuch as backhaul uplink transmission to the eNodeB, access uplinkreception from the UE, backhaul downlink reception from the eNodeB, andaccess downlink transmission to the UE.

FIG. 9 illustrates exemplary implementation of transmission andreception functions of the FDD mode RN. The following is a conceptualdescription of the reception function of the RN. A downlink receivedsignal from an eNodeB is delivered to a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)module 912 via a duplexer 911 and an OFDMA baseband reception process913 is performed. An uplink received signal from a UE is delivered to anFFT module 922 via a duplexer 921 and a Discrete FourierTransform-spread-OFDMA (DFT-s-OFDMA) baseband reception process 923 isperformed. The process of receiving a downlink signal from the eNodeBand the process of receiving an uplink signal from the UE may besimultaneously performed in parallel. The following is a conceptualdescription of the transmission function of the RN. An uplink signal istransmitted to the eNodeB through a DFT-s-OFDMA baseband transmissionprocess 933, an Inverse FFT (IFFT) module 932, and a duplexer 931. Adownlink signal is transmitted to the UE through an OFDM basebandtransmission process 943, an IFFT module 942, and a duplexer 941. Theprocess of transmitting an uplink signal to the eNodeB and the processof transmitting a downlink signal to the UE may be simultaneouslyperformed in parallel. The illustrated one-way duplexers may beimplemented as a single bidirectional duplexer. For example, theduplexer 911 and the duplexer 931 may be implemented as a singlebidirectional duplexer and the duplexer 921 and the duplexer 941 may beimplemented as a single bidirectional duplexer. The single bidirectionalduplexer may be implemented such that the lines of an IFFT module and abaseband process module associated with transmission and reception in aspecific carrier frequency band are branched from the bidirectionalduplex.

The case in which a band (or spectrum) of the RN is used when thebackhaul link operates in the same frequency band as the access link isreferred to as “in-band” and the case in which a band (or spectrum) ofthe RN is used when the backhaul link and the access link operate indifferent frequency bands is referred to as an “out-band”. In bothin-band and out-band cases, a UE which operates according to theexisting LTE system (e.g., Release-8) (hereinafter, referred to as alegacy UE) needs to be able to be connected to the donor cell.

The RN may be classified into a transparent RN or a non-transparent RNdepending on whether or not the UE recognizes the RN. The term“transparent” indicates that the UE cannot determine whether or not theUE is performing communication with the network through the RN and theterm “non-transparent” indicates that the UE can determine whether ornot the UE is performing communication with the network through the RN.

In association with control of the RN, the RN may be classified into anRN that is configured as a part of the donor cell or an RN that controlsthe cell by itself.

While the RN configured as a part of the donor cell may have an RN ID,the RN does not have its own cell identity. When at least a part of aRadio Resource Management (RRM) unit of the RN is controlled by theeNodeB to which the donor cell belongs (even when the remaining parts ofthe RRM are located at the RN), the RN is referred to as beingconfigured as a part of the donor cell. Preferably, such an RN cansupport a legacy UE. Examples of such an RN include various types ofrelays such as smart repeaters, decode-and-forward relays, L2 (secondlayer) relays, and Type-2 relays.

On the other hand, the RN that controls the cell by itself controls oneor more cells, unique physical layer cell identities are providedrespectively to cells controlled by the RN, and the same RRM mechanismmay be used for the cells. From the viewpoint of the UE, there is nodifference between access to the cell controlled by the RN and access tothe cell controlled by a general eNodeB. Preferably, the cell controlledby such an RN may support a legacy UE. Examples of such an RN includeself-backhauling relays, L3 (third layer) relays, Type-1 relays, andType-1a relays.

The Type-1 relay is an in-band relay that controls a plurality of cells,each of which appears to be an individual cell different from the donorcell from the viewpoint of the UE. In addition, each of the plurality ofcells has a respective physical cell ID (which is defined in LTERelease-8) and the RN may transmit its synchronization channel, RSs,etc. In the case of a single-cell operation, the UE may directly receivescheduling information and HARQ feedback from the RN and transmit itsown control channel (associated with Scheduling Request (SR), CQI,ACK/NACK, etc.) to the RN. In addition, the Type-1 relay appears as alegacy eNodeB (which operates according to the LTE Release-8 system) toa legacy UE (which operates according to the LTE Release-8 system). Thatis, the Type-1 relay has backward compatibility. The Type-1 relayappears as an eNodeB different from the legacy eNodeB to UEs whichoperates according to the LTE-A system, thereby providing performanceimprovement.

The Type-1a relay has the same characteristics as the above-describedType-1 relay except that Type-1a relay operates as an out-band relay.The Type-1a relay may be configured so as to minimize or eliminate aninfluence of the operation thereof on an L1 (first layer) operation.

The Type-2 relay is an in-band relay and does not have a separatephysical cell ID. Thus, the Type-2 relay does not form a new cell. TheType-2 relay is transparent to the legacy UE such that the legacy UEcannot determine the presence of the Type-2 relay. Although the Type-2relay can transmit a PDSCH, the Type-2 relay does not transmit at leasta CRS and a PDCCH.

In order to enable the RN to operate as the in-band relay, someresources in the time-frequency space need to be reserved for thebackhaul link and may be configured so as not to be used for the accesslink. This is referred to as resource partitioning.

The general principle of resource partitioning in the RN may beexplained as follows. The backhaul downlink and the access downlink maybe multiplexed in one carrier frequency using a Time DivisionMultiplexing (TDM) scheme (that is, only one of the backhaul downlink orthe access downlink is activated in a specific time). Similarly, thebackhaul uplink and the access uplink may be multiplexed in one carrierfrequency using the TDM scheme (that is, only one of the backhaul uplinkor the access uplink is activated in a specific time).

The multiplexing of the backhaul link using an FDD scheme may bedescribed as a procedure in which backhaul downlink transmission isperformed in a downlink frequency band and backhaul uplink transmissionis performed in an uplink frequency band. The multiplexing of thebackhaul link using a TDD scheme may be described as a procedure inwhich backhaul downlink transmission is performed in a downlink subframeof the eNodeB and the RN and backhaul uplink transmission is performedin an uplink subframe of the eNodeB and the RN.

For example, if backhaul downlink reception from the eNodeB and accessdownlink transmission to the UE are simultaneously performed in apredetermined frequency band when the RN is an in-band relay, a signaltransmitted from the transmitter of the RN may be received by thereceiver of the RN and thus signal interference or RF jamming may occurin the RF front end of the RN. Similarly, if access uplink receptionfrom the UE and backhaul uplink transmission to the eNodeB aresimultaneously performed in a predetermined frequency band, signalinterference may occur in the RF front end of the RN. Accordingly, it isdifficult to implement simultaneous transmission and reception in onefrequency band at the RN unless the received signal and the transmittedsignal are sufficiently separated (for example, unless the transmitantennas and the receive antennas are installed at sufficientlyseparated positions (for example, above or under the ground)).

In one method for solving such signal interference, the RN operates soas not to transmit a signal to the UE while a signal is being receivedfrom the donor cell. That is, a gap may be generated in transmissionfrom the RN to the UE and may be set so as not to expect anytransmission from the RN to the UE (including the legacy UE) during thegap. Such a gap may be set by configuring a Multicast Broadcast SingleFrequency Network (MBSFN) subframe (see FIG. 10). In the example of FIG.10, a first subframe 1010 is a general subframe in which a downlink(that is, access downlink) control signal and data is transmitted fromthe RN to the UE and a second subframe 1020 is an MBSFN subframe inwhich a control signal is transmitted from the RN to the UE in a controlregion 1021 of the downlink subframe while no signal is transmitted fromthe RN to the UE in the remaining region 1022 of the downlink subframe.Since the legacy UE expects transmission of the PDCCH in all downlinksubframes (that is, since the RN needs to enable the legacy UEs withinits own area to receive the PDCCH in every subframe so as to perform ameasurement function), to enable correct operation of the legacy UEs, itis necessary to transmit the PDCCH in all downlink subframes.Accordingly, even in the subframe (the second subframe 1020)) set fortransmission of the downlink (that is, the backhaul downlink) from theeNodeB to the RN, the RN needs to transmit the access downlink in firstN (N=1, 2 or 3) OFDM symbol intervals of the subframe rather thanreceiving the backhaul downlink. Since the PDCCH is transmitted from theRN to the UE in the control region 1021 of the second subframe, it ispossible to provide backward compatibility with the legacy UE served bythe RN. While no signal is transmitted from the RN to the UE in theremaining region 1022 of the second subframe, the RN may receive asignal transmitted from the eNodeB in the remaining region 1022.Accordingly, the resource partitioning method may prevent the in-band RNfrom simultaneously performing access downlink transmission and backhauldownlink reception.

The second subframe 1022 using the MBSFN subframe is described below indetail. The control region 1021 of the second subframe may be consideredan RN non-hearing interval. The RN non-hearing interval is an intervalin which the RN does not receive a backhaul downlink signal andtransmits an access downlink signal. This interval may be set to 1, 2 or3 OFDM lengths as described above. The RN performs access downlinktransmission to the UE in the RN non-hearing interval 1021 and performsbackhaul downlink reception from the eNodeB in the remaining region1022. Here, since the RN cannot simultaneously perform transmission andreception in the same frequency band, it takes a certain time to switchthe RN from the transmission mode to the reception mode. Accordingly, itis necessary to set a guard time (GT) to allow the RN to switch from thetransmission mode to the reception mode in a first portion of thebackhaul downlink reception region 1022. Similarly, even when the RNoperates to receive the backhaul downlink from the eNodeB and totransmit the access downlink to the UE, a guard time (GT) for switchingthe RN from the reception mode to the transmission mode may be set. Thelength of the guard time may be set to a time-domain value, for example,a value of k (k≧1) time samples Ts or a length of one or more OFDMsymbols. Alternatively, in a predetermined subframe timing alignmentrelationship or in the case in which backhaul downlink subframes of theRN are consecutively set, the guard time of a last portion of thesubframes may not be defined or set. Such a guard time may be definedonly in a frequency region set for backhaul downlink subframetransmission in order to maintain backward compatibility (where it isnot possible to support the legacy UE if the guard time is set in theaccess downlink interval). The RN can receive a PDCCH and a PDSCH fromthe eNodeB in the backhaul downlink reception interval 1022 excludingthe guard time. The PDCCH and the PDSCH may be referred to as an R-PDCCH(Relay-PDCCH) and an R-PDCCH (Relay-PDCCH), respectively, to indicatethat the PDCCH and the PDSCH are RN-dedicated physical channels.

Downlink Resource Allocation

Various downlink transmission resource allocation schemes may bedefined. Such downlink transmission resource allocation schemes may bereferred to as resource allocation type 0, 1, and 2.

The resource allocation type 0 is a scheme in which a predeterminednumber of consecutive Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) constitute asingle Resource Block Group (RBG) and resources are allocated in unitsof RBGs. For example, all PRBs in an RBG which is designated as adownlink transmission resource may be allocated as downlink transmissionresources. Accordingly, an RBG which is used for resource allocation canbe easily represented in a bitmap manner in order to perform resourceallocation. RBGs allocated to a certain UE (or RN) do not need to beadjacent to each other. When a plurality of RBGs which are not adjacentto each other is used for resource allocation, it is possible to achievefrequency diversity. The size of each RBG (P) may be determinedaccording to the number of RBs N_(RB) ^(DL) allocated to downlink asshown in the following Table 1. FIG. 11( a) illustrates an example ofdownlink resource allocation according to the resource allocation type 0in which the value of P is 4 and RBG 0, RBG 3, and RBG 4 are allocatedto a specific UE.

TABLE 1 Downlink Resource Blocks RBG size (N_(RB) ^(DL)) (P) ≦10 1 11-262 27-63 3  64-110 4

The resource allocation type 1 is a scheme in which all RBGs are groupedinto RBG subsets and PRBs in a selected RBG subset are allocated to aUE. Here, P RBG subsets are present and P corresponds to the size of anRBG. An RBG subset p (0≦p≦P) may include RBG p and every Pth RBGs whencounted from the pth RBG. For example, as shown in FIG. 11( b), RBGsubset 0 may include RBG 0, RBG 3, . . . , RBG subset 1 may include RBG1, RBG 4, . . . , RBG subset 2 may include RBG 2, RBG 6, . . . , and RBGsubset 3 may include RBG 3, RBG 7, . . . . Accordingly, in the case ofthe resource allocation type 1, the resource allocation information mayinclude 3 fields. The first field may indicate the selected RBG subset,the second field may indicate whether or not an offset is applied, andthe third field may include a bitmap indicating PRBs in the selected RBGsubset. Although the resource allocation type 1 can provide more highlyflexible resource allocation and higher frequency diversity than theresource allocation type 0, the resource allocation type 1 requireshigher control signal overhead. FIG. 11( b) illustrates an example ofdownlink resource allocation according to resource allocation type 1 inwhich the value of P is 4, and RBG subset 0 is selected for a specificUE.

The resource allocation type 2 is a scheme in which PRBs are notdirectly allocated but instead Virtual Resource Blocks (VRBs) areallocated and the VRBs are mapped to PRBs. One VRB has the same size asone PRB. 2 types of VRBs are present. One type is a localized-type VRB(LVRB) and the other is a distributed-type VRB (DVRB). For each VRBtype, a pair of VRBs present over 2 slots in one subframe is allocatedto one VRB number (n_(VRB)). A localized-type VRB is directly mapped toa PRB such that n_(VRB)=n_(PRB), where n_(PRB) is PRB number. In thecase of the distributed-type VRB, n_(VRB) is mapped to n_(PRB) accordingto a predetermined rule. Resource allocation information of the resourceallocation type 2 indicates a set of localized-type VRBs ordistributed-type VRBs which are consecutively allocated. The informationmay include a 1-bit flag indicating whether a localized-type VRB or adistributed-type VRB is allocated. In the case of the distributed-typeVRB, VRB numbers may be interleaved through a block interleaver and maybe mapped to PRB numbers. The first one of a pair of VRBs may be mappedto a PRB and the other may be mapped to a PRB which is separated fromthe PRB by a predetermined RB gap. Accordingly, an inter-slot hoppingmay be applied, thereby achieving frequency diversity.

Specifically, index numbers 0 to N_(VRB) ^(DL)−1 are assigned todistributed-type VRBs. Consecutive Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL) VRB numbers constituteone interleaving unit. Here, when one gap value is defined, Ñ_(VRB)^(DL)=N_(VRB) ^(DL). VRB numbers are interleaved in correspondinginterleaving units using a block interleaver. Here, the blockinterleaver has 4 columns and N_(row) rows. Here, N_(row)=┌Ñ_(VRB)^(DL)/(4P)┐·P and P is the size of an RBG defined as shown in Table 1.Here, an ┌x┐ operation yields the minimum integer greater than x. VRBnumbers are written (or input) row by row to such a configured blockinterleaver (i.e., VRB numbers are written to another row after beingfully written to one row) and are then read out column by column fromthe block interleaver (i.e., VRB numbers are read from another columnafter being fully read from one column). Here, the block interleaver maynot be fully filled with VRB numbers. In this case, N_(null) null valuesare written to the N_(null)/2th row of the 2nd and 4th columns of theblock interleaver. Here, N_(null)=4N_(row)−Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL). The nullvalues are ignored when VRB numbers are read from the block interleaver.That is, VRB numbers, excluding the null values, are read from the blockinterleaver.

FIG. 12 schematically illustrate a mapping relationship between VRBindices and PRB indices using a block interleaver when Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL) is46.

A rule for mapping VRB numbers to PRB numbers can be mathematicallyrepresented by the following Expressions 15 to 17. Expression 15 isassociated with even slot index n_(s) (i.e., slot 0), Expression 16 isassociated with odd slot index n_(s) (i.e., slot 1), and Expression 17is applied to all slot indices. In Expression 15, n_(VRB) can beacquired from downlink scheduling allocation information.

$\begin{matrix}{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix}{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{\prime} - N_{row}},} & \begin{matrix}{N_{null} \neq {0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}} \geq {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} - N_{null}}} \\{{{and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}{mod}\; 2} = 1}\end{matrix} \\\begin{matrix}{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{\prime} - N_{row} +} \\{{N_{null}/2},}\end{matrix} & \begin{matrix}{N_{null} \neq {0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}} \geq {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} - N_{null}}} \\{{{and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}{mod}\; 2} = 0}\end{matrix} \\{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{''} - {N_{null}/2}},} & \begin{matrix}{N_{null} \neq {0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}} < {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} - N_{null}}} \\{{{and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}{mod}\; 4} \geq 2}\end{matrix} \\{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{''},} & {{otherwise},}\end{matrix}{where}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{\prime}} = {{2{N_{row} \cdot \left( {{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}{mod}\; 2} \right)}} + \left\lfloor {n_{VRB}/2} \right\rfloor + {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} \cdot \left\lfloor {n_{VRB}/{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}} \right\rfloor}}},{{{and}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}^{''}} = {{N_{row} \cdot \left( {{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}{mod}\; 4} \right)} + \left\lfloor {{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}/4} \right\rfloor + {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} \cdot \left\lfloor {n_{VRB}/{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}} \right\rfloor}}},\mspace{20mu} {{{where}\mspace{14mu} {\overset{\sim}{n}}_{VRB}} = {n_{VRB}{mod}\; {\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}}}} \right.} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 15} \\{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} = {{\left( {{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( {n_{s} - 1} \right)} + {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}/2}} \right){mod}\; {\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}} + {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL} \cdot \left\lfloor {n_{VRB}/{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}} \right\rfloor}}} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 16} \\{{n_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)},} & {{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} < {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}/2}} \\\begin{matrix}{{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} + N_{gap} -} \\{{{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}/2},}\end{matrix} & {{{\overset{\sim}{n}}_{PRB}\left( n_{s} \right)} \geq {{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}/2}}\end{matrix} \right.} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 17}\end{matrix}$

For details of the mapping relationship between VRBs and PRBs, refer tothe description of the standard document (specifically, section 6.2.3 of3GPP LTE TS36.211).

Downlink Control Information Through R-PDCCH

The eNodeB may transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) of the RN tothe RN through an R-PDCCH in a backhaul downlink subframe. Messagestransmitted through an R=PDCCH include DL allocation (or assignment)information which indicates downlink resource allocation information andan uplink (UL) grant which indicates uplink resource allocationinformation.

According to the present invention, in the case in which a backhauldownlink subframe and a backhaul uplink subframe are allocated in apair, the eNodeB may transmit downlink allocation information and uplinkgrant information together in one subframe. This can simplify design ofchannels between the eNodeB and the RN and can reduce the number oftimes the RN performs blind decoding on an R-PDCCH.

First, a description is given of the case in which a backhaul downlinksubframe and a backhaul uplink subframe are allocated in a pair. Whenthe eNodeB allocates a backhaul downlink subframe for signaltransmission to the RN, the RN may feed an ACK/NACK signal indicatingsuccess or failure of reception (or decoding) of data transmitted in theallocated downlink subframe back to the eNodeB through a backhaul uplinksubframe. The timing of the backhaul uplink subframe in which the RNfeeds the uplink ACK/NACK signal to the eNodeB may be set to apredetermined time after the timing of the backhaul downlink subframe inwhich the RN receives data. For example, when the RN receives downlinkdata from the eNodeB in downlink subframe #n, the RN may transmit anuplink ACK/NACK signal in uplink subframe #(n+k). In addition, the RNmay receive an uplink grant signal from the eNodeB through an R-PDCCH ina backhaul downlink subframe and may transmit uplink data to the eNodeBthrough a backhaul uplink subframe based on the received uplink grantsignal. The timing of the backhaul uplink subframe in which the RNtransmits uplink data to the eNodeB may be set to a predetermined timeafter the timing of the backhaul downlink subframe in which the RNreceives the uplink grant signal. For example, when the RN receives anuplink grant from the eNodeB in downlink subframe #n, the RN maytransmit uplink data in uplink subframe #(n+k). In this manner, onebackhaul downlink subframe (for example, downlink subframe #n) may bepaired with a backhaul uplink subframe of a predetermined time later(for example, uplink subframe #n+k) for uplink ACK/NACK transmission anduplink data transmission of the RN. That is, a downlink subframe and anuplink subframe which are at a predetermined subframe interval k may bepaired. For example, in the case of a 3GPP LTE FDD system, it ispreferable that the value of k be fixed to 4 since the interval betweendownlink data reception and uplink ACK/NACK transmission and theinterval between uplink grant reception and uplink data transmission areall set to 4 subframes.

As described above, when backhaul downlink and uplink subframes areallocated in a pair, uplink ACK/NACK transmission and uplink datatransmission may be simultaneously performed in one backhaul uplinksubframe. To accomplish this, the present invention suggests that theeNodeB sets uplink grant information to be transmitted together withdownlink allocation information in a subframe which carries the downlinkallocation information. Thus, through uplink grant information that istransmitted in the same downlink subframe as that in which downlinkallocation information for downlink data transmission is transmitted, apart of the resources of an uplink subframe (for example, subframe #n+k)which is paired with a backhaul downlink subframe (for example, subframe#n) in which downlink data is transmitted can be allocated to the RNeach time the downlink data is transmitted. Accordingly, the RN cantransmit uplink ACK/NACK information of downlink data using the part ofthe resources of the uplink subframe allocated to the RN. Here, when theRN transmits uplink data based on an uplink grant received from theeNodeB, uplink ACK/NACK information may be transmitted by sharing thesame resources with uplink data. To accomplish this, it is possible toapply a method in which uplink control information defined in theconventional 3GPP LTE system is piggybacked on the resources of anuplink data channel (PUSCH).

It is also possible to perform setting such that downlink allocationinformation and uplink grant information are transmitted in the samedownlink subframe to allow Uplink Control Information (UCI) such as aChannel Quality Information (CQI) report and a Scheduling Request (SR),as well as the UL ACK/NACK described above, to be transmitted in uplinkresources allocated by an uplink grant.

In addition, even when the RN has no uplink data to be transmitted tothe eNodeB, it is possible to perform setting such that downlinkallocation information and uplink grant information are transmitted inthe same downlink subframe. In this case, since the eNodeB alwaystransmits an uplink grant to the RN even when the RN has no uplink data,the RN can secure resources for transmitting an uplink ACK/NACK, a CQI,and/or an SR.

When downlink allocation information and uplink grant information havebeen set to be transmitted in the same downlink subframe as describedabove, there is no need to separately design an uplink channel foruplink control information and an uplink channel for uplink datatransmission and therefore it is possible to simplify uplink channeldesign and to enable more efficient resource utilization.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example in which a downlink allocation (DLassignment) and an uplink grant (UL grant) are transmitted in onebackhaul downlink subframe. Since the RN can decode downlink data onlyafter the RN receives downlink allocation information, it is preferablethat the downlink allocation information be transmitted earlier thanuplink grant information in order to secure as much of the downlink datadecoding time as possible. For example, the downlink allocationinformation may be set to be transmitted in an OFDM symbol prior to thatof uplink grant information. The downlink allocation information may beset to be transmitted in a first slot while the uplink grant informationmay be set to be transmitted in a second slot.

When an R-PDCCH is transmitted, it is possible to consider two R-PDCCHtransmission schemes according to whether or not one R-PDCCH isinterleaved with another R-PDCCH.

First, when one R-PDCCH is not interleaved with another R-PDCCH, oneslot in an RB is used to transmit only one R-PDCCH. Accordingly, thepresent invention suggests that uplink grant information for the RNassociated with downlink allocation information (i.e., the RN which isto receive downlink data according to the downlink allocationinformation) be transmitted in the second slot of an RB in which thedownlink allocation information is transmitted. Thus, it is possible toreduce the number of times the RN performs blind decoding.

Blind decoding is a process for attempting to perform PDCCH decodingaccording to each of the hypotheses which have been set associated withvarious formats (for example, a PDCCH DCI format) of downlink controlinformation (downlink allocation or a scheduling signaling such as anuplink grant). That is, the scheduling signaling may have variouspredetermined formats, the format of scheduling signaling to betransmitted to the UE is not previously signaled to the UE, and the UEis set to perform PDCCH decoding. For example, when the UE has succeededin PDCCH decoding according to one hypothesis, the UE can performuplink/downlink transmission according to the scheduling signaling.However, when the UE has not succeeded in PDCCH decoding, the UE mayattempt to perform decoding according to another hypothesis associatedwith the format of the scheduling signaling. Accordingly, blind decodingload and complexity increase as the number of formats that thescheduling signaling may have increases. In addition, as the number ofcandidate RB positions at which the scheduling signaling can betransmitted increases, blind decoding complexity increases since it isnecessary to perform blind decoding for all RBs.

Accordingly, in the case in which uplink grant information of an RN isset to be transmitted in the second slot of an RB in which downlinkallocation information of the RN is transmitted, it is possible toreduce blind decoding complexity. Specifically, when an RN has detecteddownlink allocation information of the RN in an RB, the RN can assumethat uplink grant information of the RN is always transmitted in thesecond slot of the RB. Accordingly, the RN does not need to performblind decoding for detecting uplink grant information in a number of RBsand may perform blind decoding only in the RB in which the downlinkallocation information has been detected, thereby simplifying RNoperation implementation.

Next, the RN may operate in the following manner when downlinkallocation information is transmitted over a number of RBs.

First, the RN may perform blind decoding assuming that uplink grantinformation is transmitted in second slots of all RBs in which downlinkallocation information has been detected.

The RN may also perform blind decoding assuming that uplink grantinformation having a specific size is transmitted at specific positionsin RBs in which downlink allocation information has been detected. Forexample, it is possible to assume that an uplink grant is transmitted insecond slots of only some of the RBs which are occupied by downlinkallocation information (for example, only the half of RBs with the lowerindices among the RBs which are occupied by downlink allocationinformation). In this case, downlink data of the RN may be transmittedin the second slots of the remaining RBs.

The RN may also perform blind decoding assuming that an uplink grant,which may have various sizes and various positions, is transmitted insecond slots of RBs in which downlink allocation information has beendetected.

Although the above description has been given assuming that an R-PDCCHhas not been interleaved, downlink allocation information and uplinkgrant information may be transmitted as described above even wheninterleaving is applied.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which interleaving is applied to anR-PDCCH.

First, an R-PDCCH is transmitted through an aggregation of one or moreconsecutive CCEs, each of which corresponds to a plurality of ResourceElement Groups (REGs). The CCE aggregation level is a CCE unit forR-PDCCH search and is defined as the number of adjacent CCEs. In theexample of FIG. 14, one CCE corresponds to 8 REGs, the CCE aggregationlevel of a downlink allocation DA1 of a first RN is 1, and the CCEaggregation level of a downlink allocation DA2 of a second RN is 2.

As shown in FIG. 14, the downlink allocation DA may be interleaved inunits of REGs. Specifically, one DA may include one or more CCEs, eachof which may be fragmented into a specific number of REGs, and may beinterleaved with another DA in units of REGs. As a result of REG-basedinterleaving, REGs which have different positions from the originalpositions may be sequentially mapped to a downlink allocation (DLassignment) search space.

In addition, the present invention suggests a method in which, whenREG-based interleaving is applied to a downlink allocation (DA), the DAand a UL grant (UG) are transmitted in the same subframe and the sameinterleaving structure is applied to the DA and the UG.

As suggested in the present invention, each RN receives one DA and oneUG in a subframe. FIG. 15 illustrates an example in which interleavinghaving the same structure is applied to a DA and a UG.

First, the CCE aggregation levels of the DA and the UG may be equalizedfor each RN. That is, the number of CCEs that constitute a UG of one RNmay be set equal to the number of CCEs that constitute a DA of the RN.For example, as shown in FIG. 15, a UG (UG1) for the first RN may be setto be constructed of one CCE when a DA (DA1) for the first RN isconstructed of one CCE and a UG (UG2) for the second RN may be set to beconstructed of one CCE when a DA (DA2) for the second RN is constructedof one CCE.

Then, the order in which CCEs are arranged may be set to be equal forDAs and UGs. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, when CCEs for DAs arearranged in the order of CCE-1 corresponding to DA1 and CCE-2 and CCE-3corresponding to DA2, CCEs for UGs may be set to be arranged in theorder of CCE-1 corresponding to UG1 and CCE-2 and CCE-3 corresponding toUG2, i.e., in the same order as that of CCEs for DAs.

Finally, interleaving having the same structure may be applied to a DAand a UG. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, the rule applied toREG-based interleaving for DAs may be equally applied to REG-basedinterleaving for UGs.

When the interleaving structure described above is applied to DAs andUGs, REGs of a DA and a UG having the same interleaved REG indices maybe transmitted to the same RN.

Accordingly, even when interleaving is applied to an R-PDCCH, an RN mayassume, upon detecting a DA, that a UG having the same CCE aggregationlevel and the same logical CCE indices as the detected DA has beentransmitted to the RN. Therefore, the RN which has detected the DA doesnot need to perform blind decoding on a UG over a number of positions.Accordingly, it is possible to reduce R-PDCCH blind decoding complexityof the RN.

As described above, in the case in which a downlink allocation and anuplink grant are simultaneously transmitted in one subframe, the eNodeBmay notify the RN of information regarding resources, through which theRN is to transmit uplink control information (for example, an uplinkACK/NACK), through downlink allocation information or uplink grantinformation.

For example, information (for example, a subframe index, an offsetvalue, a HARQ process identifier, or the like) regarding the time totransmit uplink ACK/NACK information of currently transmitted downlinkdata may be included in a downlink allocation or an uplink grant to betransmitted to the RN. Alternatively, information (for example, RBallocation information, a PUCCH resource index, or the like) regardingthe position of a resource for transmitting uplink ACK/NACK informationof currently transmitted downlink data may be included in a downlinkallocation or an uplink grant to be transmitted to the RN.

The operations described above may also be applied when downlinksubframes and uplink subframes are not allocated in pairs (for example,when the number of downlink subframes is greater than the number ofuplink subframes. That is, the eNodeB may operate so as to transmit adownlink allocation and an uplink grant together in one subframeregardless of whether or not downlink subframes and uplink subframes areallocated in pairs.

When downlink subframes and uplink subframes are not allocated in pairs,only a downlink allocation may be transmitted in one subframe and the RNmay implicitly determine information regarding the time and/or resourcefor transmitting uplink ACK/NACK information of downlink data accordingto a predetermined rule. In one example of the rule, uplink ACK/NACKinformation may be transmitted in an uplink subframe (for example,subframe #(n+4+a)) that is first present after 4 subframes from asubframe (for example, subframe #4) in which downlink data has beenreceived. In addition, a resource used to transmit uplink ACK/NACKinformation in subframe #(n+4+a) may be determined in the followingmanner. For example, when another uplink ACK/NACK (AN2) is transmittedin the same uplink subframe as the subframe #(n+4+a) in which one uplinkACK/NACK (AN1) is to be transmitted, downlink data associated with theAN2 (for example, downlink received in subframe #(n+a) may be present.Here, a resource (i.e., a resource for transmitting AN2), which isexplicitly specified through a downlink allocation for downlink dataassociated with AN2 or through an uplink grant transmitted together withthe downlink allocation, may be set to be used to transmit AN1 togetherwith AN2.

As described above, the present invention provides a method in which adownlink allocation and an uplink grant for one RN are set to betransmitted in the same single downlink subframe such that it ispossible to simplify uplink channel design and blind decoding load bothwhen interleaving is applied to an R-PDCCH and when interleaving isapplied to an R-PDCCH.

In addition, although the present invention has been described mainlywith reference to an R-PDCCH as an example, the scope of the presentinvention is not limited to the R-PDCCH. For example, the sameprinciples as suggested by the present invention can be applied and thesame advantages can be achieved when a control channel such as anadvanced PDCCH, which carries downlink control information (DCI) for aUE, can be located at a first slot and/or a second slot of one subframe.

R-PDCCH Search Space Setting

R-PDCCHs that are transmitted from an eNodeB to one RN may be classifiedinto interleaved R-PDCCHs characterized in that each R-PDCCH isfragmented into REGs (each including 4 REs) and REGs of the R-PDCCH aremixed with REGs of other R-PDCCH(s) and non-interleaved R-PDCCHscharacterized in that an R-PDCCH transmits for only one RN is present inone physical resource block (PRB). The following is a description ofexamples of how a search space for blind decoding of a non-interleavedR-PDCCH is determined according to present invention.

First, the present invention suggests that only one R-PDCCH betransmitted in one resource block group (RBG). Accordingly, it ispossible to avoid the case in which it is unclear to which RN acorresponding resource is allocated since R-PDCCHs for a plurality ofRNs cannot be present in an RBG including one or more RBs (i.e., an RBGwhich is a basic resource allocation unit in the resource allocationtype 0).

FIG. 16 illustrates an example in which one R-PDCCH is transmitted usingone RB when one RBG includes 4 RBs. The R-PDCCH of FIG. 16, which is achannel for downlink allocation (DA), may be set such that the R-PDCCHassociated with downlink information is transmitted only in the firstslot in order to reduce decoding latency and to quickly decode downlinkdata. The first slot is shown as being shorter than the second slot inFIG. 16 since FIG. 16 shows a backhaul downlink subframe for the RNexcluding a section in which a PDCCH is transmitted from the RN to a UEat a front part (see “1021” of FIG. 10) of the first slot.

Although the present invention is described below with reference to thecase in which an R-PDCCH associated with downlink allocation informationis transmitted in the first slot of a backhaul downlink subframe as anexample for clear explanation of the present invention, the presentinvention is not limited to the case. That is, the same principle asdescribed with reference to an R-PDCCH carrying downlink allocationinformation according to the present invention may also be applied tothe case in which an R-PDCCH carrying downlink allocation information istransmitted in the second slot of a backhaul downlink subframe.

According to an example of the present invention, the eNodeB may notifythe RN of the position of a search space for each aggregation levelthrough a higher layer signal. Here, the aggregation level may indicatethe size of a resource occupied by one R-PDCCH. In the case in which adownlink allocation (DA) is transmitted in the first slot of a downlinksubframe, the aggregation level n indicates that one R-PDCCH istransmitted using the first slots of n RBs. That is, the example of FIG.16 corresponds to the case in which the aggregation level is 1.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example in which the aggregation level is n suchthat one R-PDCCH is transmitted using a plurality of RBs (n RBs). Asdescribed above, when only one R-PDCCH is set to be transmitted in oneRBG, the position of a search space of the R-PDCCH may be expressed asthe position of the RBG. That is, when a specific RBG is specified as asearch space of a R-PDCCH of a specific aggregation level, thisindicates that the RN performs blind decoding on an R-PDCCH for a numberof RBs (i.e., n RBs) corresponding to the aggregation level withreference to a specified position in the RBG. Here, the specifiedposition in the RBG may be a position corresponding to the lowest RBindex, the highest RB index, or a specific offset value. The specificoffset value may be explicitly given by a higher layer signal or may beset to a value that is implicitly given (or derived) by a cell ID. Inone method of determining a number of RBs (n RBs) corresponding to theaggregation level with reference to the specified position in the RBG,the same number of RBs (n RBs) as the aggregation level may be selectedin increasing order of RB index or in decreasing order of RB indexstarting from the specified position in the RBG and the selected RBs maythen be determined as a search space of an R-PDCCH. Here, if theboundary of the RBG is exceeded when n RBs are selected in increasingorder of RB index and in decreasing order of RB index starting from thespecific position, another RB of the RBG may be selected in a circularshift manner and then be determined to be included in the n RBs.

For example, the eNodeB may notify a specific RN of a set of searchspaces set corresponding to aggregation levels 1, 2, and 4. Signalingthat the eNodeB uses to notify the RN of the search space set may beconfigured in the form of a bitmap of all RBGs. Here, a search space setmay be set such that there is a specific correlation between eachaggregation level and the number of RBGs belonging to a search space setfor the aggregation level. For example, when N RBGs are allocated to asearch space of aggregation level 1, N/2 RBGs may be allocated to asearch space of aggregation level 2 and N/4 RBGs may be allocated to asearch space of aggregation level 4. In the case in which such acorrelation is set, the blind decoding scheme may have a structuresimilar to a blind decoding scheme for each aggregation level of a PDCCHthat is transmitted from an eNodeB to a UE in the conventional 3GPP LTEsystem.

In another example, search space sets may be set such that there is aspecific inclusion relationship between respective search space sets ofaggregation levels. For example, an RBG set allocated to a search spaceof a higher aggregation level may include a subset of an RBG setallocated to a search space of a lower aggregation level. For example,some of RBGs belonging to a search space set of aggregation level 1 mayconstitute a search space set of aggregation level 2 and some of RBGsbelonging to a search space set of aggregation level 2 may constitute asearch space set of aggregation level 4. When search space sets are setso as to have such an inclusion relationship, it is possible to reducethe overhead of signaling for allocating a search space set for eachaggregation level.

For example, when N RBGs are allocated to a search space of aggregationlevel 1, half number of the RBGs (i.e., N/2 RBGs) (for example, odd oreven RBGs) among the N RBGs may constitute a search space set ofaggregation level 2. Here, a 1-bit indicator may be used to notify theRN of which RBG set is to be used as a search space from among 2 RBGsets (for example, odd or even RBGs) which may be constructed of N RBGs.The eNodeB may transmit such a 1-bit indicator as a higher layer signal.In addition, a half number of RBGs (i.e., N/4 RBGs) (for example, odd oreven RBGs) among N/2 RBGs allocated to a search space of aggregationlevel 4 may constitute a search space set of aggregation level 4. Here,a 1-bit indicator may be used to notify the RN of which RBG set is to beused as a search space from among 2 RBG sets (for example, odd or evenRBGs) which may be constructed of N/2 RBGs.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example in which an RBG set allocated to a searchspace of a higher aggregation level is constructed of a subset of an RBGset allocated to a search space of a lower aggregation level. In theexample of FIG. 18( a), it is assumed that an eNodeB allocates all RBGsof a system bandwidth to a search space of aggregation level 1. Then,the eNodeB may notify the RN of allocation information of the searchspace of aggregation level using a 1-bit indicator. As shown in FIG. 18(b), when the value of this indicator is 0, odd RBGs (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th,. . . ) RBGs among RBGs that constitute the search space of aggregationlevel 1 are allocated to the search space of aggregation level 2 and,when the value of this indicator is 1, even RBGs (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, .. . ) RBGs among RBGs that constitute the search space of aggregationlevel 1 are allocated to the search space of aggregation level 2. FIG.18( c) shows RBGs that are allocated to the search space of aggregationlevel 4 when an indicator for the search space of aggregation level 2 is0 and FIG. 18( d) shows RBGs that are allocated to the search space ofaggregation level 4 when the indicator for the search space ofaggregation level 2 is 1. The eNodeB may notify the RN of a 1-bitindicator for the search space of aggregation level 4 in addition to the1-bit indicator for the search space of aggregation level 2. When thevalue of the 1-bit indicator for the search space of aggregation level 4is 0, odd RBGs (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, . . . ) RBGs among RBGs thatconstitute the search space of aggregation level 2 are allocated to thesearch space of aggregation level 4 and, when the value of this 1-bitindicator is 1, even RBGs (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, . . . ) RBGs among RBGsthat constitute the search space of aggregation level 2 are allocated tothe search space of aggregation level 4.

In the search space allocation operation described above, search spacesmay be fixedly set such that all RBGs in the system bandwidth areallocated to the search space of aggregation level 1. In addition,search spaces may be fixedly set such that all even RBGs among all RBGsof the system bandwidth are allocated to the search space of aggregationlevel 2 and every 4^(th) RBGs among all RBGs of the system bandwidth areallocated to the search space of aggregation level 4. When search spacesare fixedly set in this manner, each of the indicators of allocationinformation of the search spaces of aggregation level 2 and aggregationlevel 4 is fixed to a specific value as described above with referenceto FIG. 18 and therefore it is possible to reduce signaling overheadsince there is no need to provide the indicators. FIG. 19 illustratesRBGs that are allocated to the search spaces of aggregation levels 1, 2,and 4 in the above manner.

A frequency localized R-PDCCH transmission scheme or a frequencydistributed R-PDCCH transmission scheme may be applied when an R-PDCCHsearch space is designed. The frequency localized scheme is a method inwhich an R-PDCCH is transmitted using adjacent resources in a frequencyregion (i.e., using RBs belonging to the same RBG as shown in FIG. 17)when the aggregation level is 2 or higher. On the other hand, thefrequency distributed scheme is a method in which an R-PDCCH istransmitted using resources which are spaced from each other in afrequency region in order to achieve a frequency diversity gain when theaggregation level is 2 or higher. The following is a more detaileddescription of a method of designing search spaces according to afrequency distributed scheme.

In the frequency distributed R-PDCCH transmission scheme, the searchspace for aggregation level 1 may be configured in the same manner as inthe frequency localized R-PDCCH transmission scheme. That is, an R-PDCCHof aggregation level 1 may be transmitted using one RB at a specifiedposition per RBG and a bitmap-format signaling indicating which RBG hasbeen allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 may betransmitted from the eNodeB to the RN. The search space of aggregationlevel 1 may also be fixedly set such that all RBGs of the systembandwidth are allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1without providing such a signaling.

In the frequency distributed R-PDCCH transmission scheme, 2 RBGsallocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 described above maybe grouped to constitute a search space of aggregation level 2 unlike inthe frequency localized R-PDCCH transmission scheme. FIG. 20 illustratesa scheme in which 2 adjacent RBGs among RBGs of a lower aggregationlevel are grouped to constitute a search space of a higher aggregationlevel.

For example, indices may be newly assigned only to RBGs allocated to thesearch space of aggregation level 1 and two adjacent RBGs may be groupedbased on the newly assigned indices and may be allocated to the searchspace of aggregation level 2. Here, the expression “newly assigningindices to RBGs” indicates that indices are sequentially assigned onlyto RBGs allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 accordingto a predetermined scheme, rather than using all RBG indices of thesystem bandwidth since the RBGs allocated to the search space ofaggregation level 1 may be part of the RBGs of the system bandwidth.

Similarly, indices may be newly assigned only to RBGs allocated to thesearch space of aggregation level 2 and two adjacent RBGs may be groupedbased on the newly assigned indices and may be allocated to the searchspace of aggregation level 4. In other words, new indices may beassigned to only RBGs allocated to aggregation level 1 and 4 adjacentRBGs may be grouped based on the new indices and may be allocated to thesearch space of aggregation level 4.

When indices are sequentially assigned only to RBGs allocated to thesearch space of aggregation level 1 according to a predetermined scheme,indices may be assigned in the same order as the order of VirtualResource Block (VRB) indices or Physical Resource Block (PRB) indicesgiven by downlink allocation information (see the example of FIG. 20).However, a method of reordering RBG indices may be additionally appliedin order to maximize frequency diversity gain.

For example, after binary indices are assigned only to RBGs allocated tothe search space of aggregation level 1, bit reversal may be applied tothe assigned indices and RBGs of 2 adjacent RBG indices among thebit-reversed RBG indices may be grouped and assigned to the search spaceof aggregation level 2. Here, the term “bit reversal” refers to reversalof the order of bit values of a bit sequence, for example, refers tochanging a bit sequence of “abc” to a bit sequence of “cba”. FIG. 21illustrates a method in which 2 adjacent RBGs among RBGs of a loweraggregation level are grouped to constitute a search space of a higheraggregation level while applying bit reversal.

For example, let us assume that 8 RBGs among all RBGs of the systembandwidth are allocated to a search space of aggregation level 1. Newindices RBG#0 to RBG#7 are assigned to the 8 RBGs. The newly assignedRBG indices may be represented as binary values 000, 001, 010, 011, 100,101, 110, and 111. When bit reversal is applied to the binary indices,bit-reversed indices 000, 100, 101, 110, 001, 101, 011, and 111 areobtained. The RBGs may be rearranged in the order of RBG#0, RBG#4,RBG#2, RBG#6, RBG#1, RBG#5, RBG#3, and RBG#7 according to thebit-reversed indices. Here, 2 adjacent RBGs in the reordered RBGs may begrouped to constitute a search space of aggregation level 2. Forexample, RBG#0 and RGB#4 corresponding to indices 000 and 100 may begrouped to constitute a search space of aggregation level 2. Then, 2adjacent RBGs among RBGs allocated to the search space of aggregationlevel 2 may be grouped and allocated to a search space of aggregationlevel 4. In other words, 4 RBGs which are adjacent among RBGs acquiredby bit-reversing and reordering only the RBGs allocated to the searchspace of aggregation level 1 may be grouped and allocated to a searchspace of aggregation level 4.

Although design of search spaces of aggregation levels 1, 2, and 4 hasbeen described above on an RBG basis in association with FIGS. 20 and 21for clear explanation of the basic principle of design of the searchspaces of the aggregation levels, one RB at a specified position per RBGallocated to a search space may be allocated to the search space of anR-PDCCH. FIGS. 22 and 23 illustrate RBs that are allocated to an R-PDCCHsearch space in the R-PDCCH search space allocation methods of FIGS. 20and 21, respectively. In the examples of FIGS. 22 and 23, the samedescriptions as those of FIGS. 20 and 21 are applied except that one RBis specified in a corresponding RBG and redundant descriptions areomitted herein.

FIG. 24 illustrates another example of the present invention associatedwith a method for configuring a search space of a higher aggregationlevel by grouping 2 adjacent RBGs among RBGs allocated to a search spaceof a lower aggregation level. In order to maintain consistency with thefrequency distributed R-PDCCH transmission scheme and the frequencylocalized R-PDCCH transmission scheme, a search space of a higheraggregation level is configured using adjacent RBGs among RBGs allocatedfor a lower aggregation level and RBs which are not allocated for thelower aggregation level are used in some of the adjacent RBGs toincrease the aggregation level. For example, as shown in FIG. 24, thesame RB as that allocated to the search space of the lower aggregationlevel may be used in one of the 2 adjacent RBGs and a different RB fromthat allocated to the search space of the lower aggregation level may beused in the other RBG. In this case, the 2 adjacent RBGs may be adjacentRBGs to which reordering such as bit-reversal has not been applied asshown in FIG. 20 and may also be adjacent RBGs to which reordering suchas bit-reversal has been applied as shown in FIG. 21. For example, anRBG adjacent to RBG#0 for constituting the search space of aggregationlevel 1 may be RBG#1 when RBG reordering has not been applied and may beRBG#4 when RBG reordering (for example, bit-reversal) has been applied.In the example of FIG. 24, the search space of aggregation level 2 maybe configured using RBs of RBG#0 and RBG#1 such that an RB which hasbeen allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 is used inRBG#0 and an RB which has not been allocated to the search space ofaggregation level 1 is used in RBG#1 (where RBG#4 rather than RBG#1 maybe an RBG adjacent to RBG#0).

Here, the RB that has not been allocated to the search space ofaggregation level 1 may be an RB that is additionally used in thecorresponding RBG in the case of aggregation level 2 in the frequencylocalized scheme. That is, one RB that is used for the search space ofaggregation level 2 in the frequency distributed scheme in the exampleof FIG. 24 may correspond to an RB (RB1) that is additionally used forthe search space of aggregation level 2 in the frequency localizedscheme in the example of FIG. 17.

Also, when a search space of aggregation level 4 is configured, an RBwhich has been allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 maybe used in some of the RBGs (for example, RBG#0) and an RB which has notbeen allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 may be used inthe remaining RBGs (for example, RBG#1, RBG#2, and RBG#3). For example,a first RB (RB0) of RBG#0, a second RB (RB1) of RBG#1, a third RB (RB2)of RBG#2, and a fourth RB (RB3) of RBG#3 may constitute a single searchspace of aggregation level 4. Similarly, when a search space of a higheraggregation level is configured while reordering such as bit-reversal isapplied to RBG5 which constitute the search space of aggregation level1, an RB which has been allocated to the search space of aggregationlevel 1 may be used in some of the RBGs (for example, RBG#0) and an RBwhich has not been allocated to the search space of aggregation level 1may be used in the remaining RBGs (for example, RBG#4, RBG#2, andRBG#6). For example, a first RB (RB0) of RBG#0, a second RB (RB1) ofRBG#4, a third RB (RB2) of RBG#2, and a fourth RB (RB3) of RBG#6 mayconstitute a single search space of aggregation level 4. In the case inwhich a search space of a higher aggregation level is configured in thismanner, only one CCE index is used even when the aggregation level is 2or higher and therefore it is possible to prevent waste of PUCCHresources mapped to CCE indices.

In addition, in the method in which 2 adjacent RBGs among RBG5 allocatedto a search space of a lower aggregation level are grouped to constitutea search space of a higher aggregation level, a 1-bit indicator whichindicates which RB is to be used to constitute a search space of ahigher aggregation level from among RBs allocated a search space of alower aggregation level may be used similar to the principle describedabove with reference to FIG. 18.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example in which, when such a 1-bit indicator isused, an RB which has been allocated to a search space of aggregationlevel 1 and an RB which has not been allocated to the search space ofaggregation level 1 are grouped to constitute a search space of anaggregation level 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 25, when the value ofthe 1-bit indicator is 0, an RB which is used for the search space ofaggregation level 1 in a front (or earlier) RBG (RBG#0) among 2 adjacentRBGs (RBG#0 and RBG#1) that constitute the search space of aggregationlevel 1 and an RB which is not used for the search space of aggregationlevel 1 in a rear (or later) RBG (RBG#1) may be grouped to constitute asearch space of aggregation level 2. On the other hand, when the valueof the 1-bit indicator is 1, an RB which is not used for the searchspace of aggregation level 1 in the front RBG (RBG#0) and an RB which isused for the search space of aggregation level 1 in the rear RBG (RBG#1)may be grouped to constitute a search space of aggregation level 2.

In addition, FIG. 26 illustrates an example in which, when reorderingsuch as bit-reversal is applied, an RB which has been allocated to asearch space of aggregation level 1 and an RB which has not beenallocated to the search space of aggregation level 1 are grouped toconstitute a search space of an aggregation level 2 using a 1-bitindicator. For example, as shown in FIG. 26, when the value of the 1-bitindicator is 0, an RB which is used for the search space of aggregationlevel 1 in a front (or earlier) RBG (RBG#0) among 2 adjacent RBGs (RBG#0and RBG#4) that constitute the search space of aggregation level 1 andan RB which is not used for the search space of aggregation level 1 in arear (or later) RBG (RBG#4) may be grouped to constitute a search spaceof aggregation level 2. On the other hand, when the value of the 1-bitindicator is 1, an RB which is not used for the search space ofaggregation level 1 in the front RBG (RBG#0) and an RB which is used forthe search space of aggregation level 1 in the rear RBG (RBG#4) may begrouped to constitute a search space of aggregation level 2.

In addition, an RB which has been allocated to a search space ofaggregation level 2 and an RB which has not been allocated to the searchspace of aggregation level 2 may be grouped to constitute a search spaceof aggregation level 4 using a predetermined indicator, similar to theprinciple described above with reference to FIGS. 25 and 26.

Alternatively, when the indicator is fixed to a specific value, an RBwhich has been allocated to a search space of a lower aggregation leveland an RB which has not been allocated to the search space of the loweraggregation level may be grouped to constitute a search space of ahigher aggregation level without transmitting the indicator, similar tothe principle described above with reference to FIG. 19.

In the following description, a method in which a mapping relationshipbetween distributed-type VRB (CVRB) indices and PRBs described abovewith reference to Expressions 15 to 17 in the downlink resourceallocation type 2 described above is used when a search space ofaggregation level 2 or 4 is configured is described below as anotherexample of the present invention associated with a method of configuringa search space according to a frequency distributed scheme. Anembodiment of the present invention using the mapping relationshipbetween DVRB indices and PRBs may be described as reordering of RBGindices (or RB indices). For example, one example of the method of thepresent invention for reordering RBG indices (or RB indices) is a methodof reordering RBG indices using a bit-reversal scheme as described abovewith reference to FIG. 21 and another example is a method of reorderingRB indices using the mapping relationship between DVRB indices and PRBindices as described below. However, the present invention is notlimited to these examples and may include a method of reordering RBGindices (or RB indices) according to a predetermined rule.

An R-PDCCH of aggregation level 2 or 4 may be configured by connectingPRBs which are adjacent in VRB indices. For example, when a search spaceof aggregation level 2 is configured using 2 PRBs starting from VRBindex t, PRB indices which constitute the search space of aggregationlevel 2 may be represented as f(t) and f(t+1). The two PRBs may bepresent in the first slot of a downlink subframe. f( ) is a function formapping a VRB index to a PRB and defines the mapping relationshipbetween VRB indices and PRB indices as described above with reference toExpressions 15 to 17 in the description of downlink resource allocationtype 2.

When a search space of aggregation level 2 or 4 is defined using amapping relationship between BRB indices and PRB indices in this manner,all VRB indices, each of which is a start index in one search space ofaggregation level 2 (i.e., each of which has the smaller value among 2RBs which constitute the search space of aggregation level 2), may belimited to even or odd indices. Similarly, all VRB indices, each ofwhich is a start index in one search space of aggregation level 4 (i.e.,each of which has the smaller value among 4 RBs which constitute thesearch space of aggregation level 4), may be limited to indices suchthat remainders when the index values are divided by 4 are equal (orsuch that the index values are multiples of 4). If such limitation isapplied, it is possible to simplify allocation of a search space of ahigher aggregation level and to reduce complexity of blind decodingoperation.

In addition, when a search space of a higher aggregation level isconfigured using the method described above, PRB indices n and m whichconstitute a search space of aggregation level 2 may be restricted so asto satisfy a condition of the following Expression 18.

ƒ⁻¹(n)+1=ƒ(m)  Expression 18

In Expression 18, f⁻¹( ) denotes a reversed function of f( ) and maps aPRB index to a VRB index. Expression 18 may also be expressed as thefollowing Expression 19.

m=ƒ(ƒ^(−i)(n)+1)  Expression 19

When a VRB index is mapped to a PRB index according to a DVRB mappingscheme, the mapping relationship is determined by a block interleaverincluding 4 columns and N_(row) rows as described above with referenceto FIG. 12. Taking into consideration this, the relation between PRBindices n and m of Expressions 18 and 19 may be determined as shown inthe following Expression 20.

$\begin{matrix}{m = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{{m + N_{row}},} & \begin{matrix}{{f(n)} = {{4i\mspace{14mu} {or}\mspace{14mu} 4i} + {2\mspace{14mu} {for}}}} \\{{an}\mspace{14mu} {arbitrary}\mspace{14mu} {integer}\mspace{14mu} i}\end{matrix} \\\begin{matrix}{n + N_{row} - {N_{null}/2} + N_{gap} -} \\{{{\overset{\sim}{N}}_{VRB}^{DL}/2},}\end{matrix} & {otherwise}\end{matrix} \right.} & {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 20}\end{matrix}$

As shown in Expression 20, the PRB index m may be obtained by adding therow size (N_(row)) of the DVRB block interleaver to the PRB index n(after subtracting N_(null)/2 for the second or fourth column where anull is present). Here, when the condition of f(n)=4t+1 is satisfied, anext adjacent RB in VRB indices is additionally spaced by a number ofRBs (i.e, N_(gap)−Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL)/2 RBs) which are not used for DVRBs inPRBs.

As a result, when the search space of aggregation level starts from PRBindex n, 2 PRB indices n and n+N_(row) are determined as a search spaceof aggregation level 2. In addition, when a search space of aggregationlevel 4 starts from PRB index n, 4 PRB indices n, n+N_(row),n+2N_(row)−N_(null)/2+N_(gap)−Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL)/2 and+3N_(row)−N_(null)/2+N_(gap)−Ñ_(VRB) ^(DL)/2 are determined as a searchspace of aggregation level 4. Consequently, PRB indices n and m whichconstitute a search space of a higher aggregation level may bedetermined to be the most adjacent PRB indices in VRB indices.

FIG. 27 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention in which RBsthat constitute a search space of a higher aggregation level aredetermined using VRB indices. An eNodeB may reorder PRBs allocated to asearch space of aggregation level 1 according to VRB indices using aDVRB block interleaver. For example, PRB indices 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,and 7 may be mapped respectively to VRB indices 0, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, and7 and the RB resources may be reordered (or rearranged) according to theVRB indices. 2 adjacent RB resources in VRB indices may construct asearch space of aggregation level 2 and 4 adjacent RB resources in VRBindices may construct a search space of aggregation level 4.

In summary, PRBs mapped to 2 adjacent VRB indices may be determined as asearch space of aggregation level 2 and PRBs mapped to 4 adjacent VRBindices may be determined as a search space of aggregation level 4. VRBindices and PRB indices may be mapped to each other through the blockinterleaver described above.

The RN may receive a set of VRB indices of aggregation level 1, asinformation regarding an R-PDCCH search space (i.e., candidate RBresources in which an R-PDCCH may be transmitted), from the eNodeB. TheVRB index set includes VRB indices that are mapped to PRB resources inwhich an R-PDCCH may be transmitted. VRB indices may be mapped to PRBindices using a block interleaver. An RN which has received the VRBindex set may newly assign indices according to the order of VRBindices. The RN may group 2 adjacent RBs based on the newly-assignedindices to determine a search space of aggregation level 2. In addition,the RN may group 4 adjacent RBs based on the newly-assigned indices todetermine a search space of aggregation level 2. That is, when the RNhas received a set of VRB indices of aggregation level 1 from theeNodeB, the RN may determine 2 adjacent VRB indices to be a search spaceof aggregation level 2 and determine 4 adjacent VRB indices to be asearch space of aggregation level 4 without receiving any indication andperform blind decoding of an R-PDCCH according to each aggregationlevel.

In addition, for example, it is possible to set a rule for limiting RBscorresponding to 4k, 4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3 for a specific integer k inVRB indices such that the RBs corresponding to 4k, 4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3are allocated as a set to a search space or are not allocated to asearch space. According to this rule, it is possible to guarantee that asearch space of aggregation level 4 is constructed of 4 consecutive RBresources in VRB indices. If such a limitation is applied, it ispossible to construct a signaling, which constitutes a search space, ina simple configuration. That is, the eNodeB may signal only a setassociated with integer k, thereby reducing signaling overhead andallowing RBs corresponding to 4k, 4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3 in VRB indices tobe included in a search space.

The following Table 2 illustrates an example of the mapping relationshipbetween PRB indices and VRB indices assuming that the system bandwidthis 32 RBs and one RBG includes 3 RBs. An embodiment of the presentinvention in which, when VRB indices which constitute a search space ofaggregation level 1 is given, PRBs mapped to 2 adjacent VRB indices aredetermined to be a search space of aggregation level 2 and PRBs mappedto 4 adjacent VRB indices are determined to be a search space ofaggregation level 4 is described below with reference to Table 2. InTable 2, each RBG includes 3 consecutive PRBs and RBGs are representedby RBG indices 0 to 10. In this regard, RBG indices 0, 3, 6, 9, . . .may constitute RBG subset 0, RBG indices 1, 4, 7, 10, . . . mayconstitute RBG subset 1, and RBG indices 2, 5, 8 . . . may constituteRBG subset 2, similar to the method of resource allocation type 1 ofFIG. 11( b).

TABLE 2 PRB index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 RBG 0 0 0 1 11 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 1st slot 0 4 8 12 16 20 22 24 26 1 5 9 13 17 −1−1 −1 2nd slot 2 6 10 14 18 21 23 25 27 3 7 11 15 19 −1 −1 −1 PRB index17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 RBG 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 99 10 10 1st slot −1 2 6 10 14 18 21 23 25 27 3 7 11 15 19 2nd slot −1 04 8 12 16 20 22 24 26 1 5 9 13 17

In Table 2, for example, it is assumed that, for example, PRBs whose VRBindices are 0, 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, and 15 in the 1st slot (i.e., PRBindices 0, 9, 18, 27, 3, 12, 21, 30) are allocated to a search space ofaggregation level 1.

In this case, VRB indices 0 and 1 constitute a search space ofaggregation level 2 and RBs corresponding to the VRB indices 0 and 1have PRB indices 0 and 9. Similarly, VRB indices 2 and 3 (PRB indices 18and 27) may constitute a search space of aggregation level 2, VRBindices 12 and 13 (PRB indices 3 and 12) may constitute a search spaceof aggregation level 2, and VRB indices 14 and 15 (PRB indices 21 and30) may constitute a search space of aggregation level 2.

In addition, VRB indices 0, 1, 2, and 3 constitute a search space ofaggregation level 4 and RBs corresponding to the VRB indices 0, 1, 2,and 3 have PRB indices 0, 9, 18, and 27. Similarly, VRB indices 12, 13,14, and 15 (PRB indices 3, 12, 21, and 30) may constitute another searchspace of aggregation level 4.

The following Table 3 illustrates an example of the present invention inwhich a DVRB mapping rule is used to determine an R-PDCCH search space.

TABLE 3 PRB index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 RBG 0 0 0 1 11 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 1st slot 0 4 8 12 16 20 22 24 26 1 5 9 13 17 −1−1 −1 2nd slot 2 6 10 14 18 21 23 25 27 3 7 11 15 19 −1 −1 −1 PRB index17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 RBG 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 99 10 10 1st slot −1 2 6 10 14 18 21 23 25 27 3 7 11 15 19 2nd slot −1 04 8 12 16 20 22 24 26 1 5 9 13 17

A method for determining a search space of an R-PDCCH when the R-PDCCHhas not been interleaved (i.e., when an R-PDCCH for only one RN ispresent in one RB) using a DVRB mapping rule defined in the downlinkresource allocation type-2 method in a system in which a systembandwidth of 32 RBs is given and each RBG includes 3 RBs is describedbelow with reference to Table 3. Here, the DVRB mapping rule may be usedto determine the positions of RBs (i.e., a search space) where anR-PDCCH can be transmitted rather than being used to schedule resourcesin which a PDSCH (including an R-PDSCH) is transmitted.

For example, in the example of Table 2, PRBs indicated by PRB indices(i.e., PRB indices 0, 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27, and 28) corresponding to VRBindices 0 to 7 of the first slot may be used for R-PDCCH transmission.When the R-PDCCH aggregation levels of all RNs are 1 (i.e., one PRBincludes 1 CCE), one R-PDCCH may be transmitted in each PRB. When theR-PDCCH aggregation levels of all RNs are 2, CCEs of aggregation level 2may be mapped to PRB indices 0 and 1 and other CCEs of aggregation level2 may be mapped to PRB indices 9 and 10. In this manner, 2 PRBs may beused to transmit 2 CCEs.

The embodiment of the present invention associated with Table 3 has thefollowing differences from the DVRB mapping scheme defined in theconventional downlink resource allocation type 2. First, using themapping relationship between VRBs and PRBs, PRBs in which an R-PDCCH canbe transmitted may be specified and VRBs may then be sequentially mappedto the specified PRBs. Namely, the mapping relationship between VRBs andPRBs may be used only to determine PRBs (R-PDCCH PRBs) in which anR-PDCCH can be transmitted and VRB indices that have been used tospecify R-PDCCH PRBs may not be used to determine which PRBs constitutea search space according to the aggregation level. For example, whileVRB indices are used to determine PRBs in which an R-PDCCH can betransmitted, PRB indices may be used to determine which PRBs in which anR-PDCCH of a specific aggregation level is actually transmitted. Inanother sense, VRB indices may be newly mapped to PRB indices inincreasing order of PRB indices of R-PDCCH PRBs and a search space ofaggregation level 2 may be determined through RBs corresponding to 2 VRBindices which are adjacent to each other in the newly-mapped VRBindices. In the example of Table 3, R-PDCCH PRBs may be determined to bePRBs corresponding to VRB indices 0 to 7 (PRB indices 0, 1, 9, 10, 18,19, 27, and 28) according to the DVRB mapping rule and, if VRB indicesare newly-assigned in increasing order of PRB indices, the PRB indices0, 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27, and 28 are mapped to the newly-assigned VRBindices 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The search space of aggregationlevel 2 may include the newly-assigned VRB indices 0 and 1 (PRB indices0 and 1), VRB indices 2 and 3 (PRB indices 9 and 10), VRB indices 4 and(PRB indices 18 and 19), and VRB indices 6 and 7 (PRB indices 27 and28).

In addition, when a non-interleaved R-PDCCH search space is determined,slot-based cyclic hopping may not be performed in the second slot.

When a number of aggregation levels are present together, R-PDCCH PRBsmay be determined according to the DVRB mapping rule and logical CCEs orVRB indices may be mapped to the determined R-PDCCH PRBs. That is, whenthe aggregation level is L, L CCEs may be assigned to L adjacent PRBsamong the determined R-PDCCH PRBs (i.e., to L RBs which are adjacent toeach other in the newly assigned VRB indices).

Next, an example of the present invention in which a VRB index at whicha search space of a specific aggregation level starts is determined isdescribed as follows.

As shown in Tables 2 and 3, PRBs corresponding to VBR indicescorresponding to 4k, 4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3 for a specific integer k aremapped to different RBGs (each of which includes 3 RBs) and a PRB mappedto VRB index 4k+4 is mapped to the same RBG as the PRB corresponding tothe VRB index 4k. For example, PRBs corresponding to VRB indices 0, 1,2, and 3 are mapped respectively to RBGs 0, 3, 6, and 9 and a PRBcorresponding to VRB index 4 is mapped to the same RBG 0 as the PRBcorresponding to the VRB index 0. Here, the above mapping rule betweenVRB indices and RBGs may not be directly applicable when the VRB indexvalue is greater than the system bandwidth (i.e., the total number ofRBs). In this case, an RBG to which the corresponding VRB index ismapped may be specified as an exception.

Taking into consideration such a DVRB mapping rule, a search space ofaggregation level 1 may be configured using one RB per RBG bydetermining candidate positions at which an R-PDCCH of aggregation level1 can be transmitted by limiting corresponding VRB indices to a set ofspecific values. For example, candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregationlevel 1 may be represented as PRBs corresponding to VRB indices 4k,4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3 and may be limited so as to satisfy the conditionof the following Expression 21.

k=h˜P+offset  Expression 21

In Expression 21, h is an arbitrary (or specific) integer and P is RBGsize. In addition, offset is given as an integer which is equal orgreater than 0 and less than 4 and corresponds to a value determiningwhich PRB is selected per RBG from among PRBs of the RBG. This offsetvalue may be delivered to the RN through a higher layer signal or may beimplicitly determined by a parameter such as a cell ID. For example, inthe example of Tables 2 and 3, if the offset value is 0, a set of VRBindices corresponding to candidate positions of aggregation level 1 is{0, 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, 15, 22, 23}.

In this case, the candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregation level 2 maybe limited so as to use VRB indices 4k and 4k+1 or VRB indices 4k+2 and4k+3 for k which satisfies the above condition. That is, a search spaceof aggregation level 2 may be configured such that an R-PDCCH ofaggregation level 1 is transmitted in PRBs corresponding to 2consecutive VRB indices starting from an even VRB index among VRBindices of a search space of aggregation level 1. For example, anR-PDCCH of aggregation level 2 may be transmitted in PRBs correspondingto VRB indices {0, 1}, {2, 3}, {12, 13}, {14, 15}, or {22, 23}.

Similarly, a search space of aggregation level 4 may be configured suchthat an R-PDCCH of aggregation level 1 is transmitted in PRBscorresponding to VRB indices 4k, 4k+1, 4k+2, and 4k+3 for k whichsatisfies the above condition as candidate R-PDCCH positions ofaggregation level 4. For example, an R-PDCCH of aggregation level 2 maybe transmitted in PRBs corresponding to VRB indices {0, 1, 2, 3} or {12,13, 14, 15}.

The candidate R-PDCCH position determination method described above maybe applied to a frequency localized R-PDCCH transmission scheme in orderto maintain consistency with the R-PDCCH search space setting scheme. Inthis case, the LVRB mapping rule may be applied to VRB-to-PRB mapping.

Although the positions of RBs corresponding to a search space ofaggregation level 1 may be determined according to a predeterminedrelationship in the above description of the present invention, thepresent invention is not limited thereto and the eNodeB may directlysignal which RBs correspond to the search space of aggregation level 1through a higher layer. In this case, the R-PDCCH search space may bedefined using a scheme of mapping between a specific set of RB indicesand RBs in which an R-PDCCH can be transmitted.

The following is a description of another example of the presentinvention associated with search space setting. First, an R-PDCCH searchspace is defined using a scheme of mapping between an RB index set {n₁,n₂, . . . , n_(N)} and RBs and the RB mapping scheme is classified intoa frequency localized scheme and a frequency distributed scheme.

In the case of the frequency localized scheme, an R-PDCCH of aggregationlevel 1 may be transmitted in (PRBs of) PRB indices n₁, n₂, . . . ,n_(N). If N exceeds the number of blind decodings allocated toaggregation level 1, PRB positions at which an R-PDCCH can betransmitted may be limited to PRBs corresponding to the maximum numberof blind decodings of the aggregation level 1. In the case ofaggregation level 2, one candidate R-PDCCH position may be definedthrough a combination of 2 PRBs of PRB indices n₁ and n₁+1. Similarly,the remaining candidate R-PDCCH positions may be defined through acombination of n₂ and n₂+1, . . . , and a combination of n_(N) andn_(N)+1. Similar to the case of aggregation level 1, an R-PDCCH searchspace may be limited to PRBs corresponding to the maximum number ofblind decodings of aggregation level 2. Next, in the case of aggregationlevel 4, one candidate position may be defined through a combination of4 PRBs of n₁, n₁+1, n₁+2, and n₁+3. Here, PRB index n₁+1 may indicate anext PRB in PRB indices in which an R-PDCCH can be transmitted. If PRBsin which an R-PDCCH can be transmitted are limited to a specific setthrough setting by the eNodeB, the PRB index n₁+1 may be interpreted (ordetermined) as corresponding to a PRB whose PRB index is greater thanand closest to n₁ among PRBs belonging to the specific set. The sameinterpretation may be applied to n₁, n₁+1, n₁+2, and n₁+3.

In the case of the frequency distributed scheme, an R-PDCCH ofaggregation level 1 may be transmitted in VRB indices n₁, n₂, . . . ,n_(N). If N exceeds the number of blind decodings allocated toaggregation level 1, VRB positions at which an R-PDCCH can betransmitted may be limited to VRBs corresponding to the maximum numberof blind decodings of the aggregation level 1. In the case ofaggregation level 2, one candidate R-PDCCH position may be definedthrough a combination of 2 VRB indices n₁ and n₁+1. Similarly, theremaining candidate R-PDCCH positions may be defined through acombination of n₂ and n₂+1, . . . , and a combination of n_(N) andn_(N)+1. Similar to the case of aggregation level 1, an R-PDCCH searchspace may be limited to the maximum number of blind decodings ofaggregation level 2. Next, in the case of aggregation level 4, onecandidate position may be defined through a combination of 4 VRBs of n₁,n₁+1, n₁+2, and n₁+3. Here, VRBs may be mapped to PRBs according to thebit-reversal scheme or DVRB mapping scheme described above.

The following is a description of another example of the presentinvention associated with search space setting. An R-PDCCH search spaceis defined using a scheme of mapping between an RB index set {n₁, n₂, .. . , n_(N)} and RBs and the RB mapping scheme is classified into afrequency localized scheme and a frequency distributed scheme.

In the case of the frequency distributed scheme, an R-PDCCH ofaggregation level 1 may be transmitted in (PRBs of) PRB indices n₁, n₂,. . . , n_(N). If N exceeds the number of blind decodings allocated toaggregation level 1, PRB positions at which an R-PDCCH can betransmitted may be limited to PRBs corresponding to the maximum numberof blind decodings of the aggregation level 1. In the case ofaggregation level 2, one candidate R-PDCCH position may be definedthrough a combination of 2 PRBs of PRB indices n₁ and n₂. Similarly, theremaining candidate R-PDCCH positions may be defined through acombination of n₃ and n₄, . . . , and a combination of n_(N) and n_(N).Similar to the case of aggregation level 1, an R-PDCCH search space maybe limited to PRBs corresponding to the maximum number of blinddecodings of aggregation level 2.

Next, in the case of aggregation level 4, one candidate position may bedefined through a combination of 4 PRBs of n₁, n₂, n₃, and n₄.

In the case of the frequency distributed scheme, an R-PDCCH ofaggregation level 1 may be transmitted in VRB indices n₁, n₂, . . . ,n_(N). If N exceeds the number of blind decodings allocated toaggregation level 1, VRB positions at which an R-PDCCH can betransmitted may be limited to VRBs corresponding to the maximum numberof blind decodings of the aggregation level 1. In the case ofaggregation level 2, one candidate R-PDCCH position may be definedthrough a combination of 2 VRB indices n₁ and n₂. Similarly, theremaining candidate R-PDCCH positions may be defined through acombination of n₃ and n₄, . . . , and a combination of and n_(N).Similar to the case of aggregation level 1, an R-PDCCH search space maybe limited to the maximum number of blind decodings of aggregation level2. Next, in the case of aggregation level 4, one candidate position maybe defined through a combination of 4 VRBs of n₁, n₂, n₃, and n₄. Inother words, when a VRB index set of N VRBs is given as {n₁, n₂, . . . ,n_(N)}, candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregation level L may bedefined as {n₁, n₂, . . . , n_(L)}, {n_(L+1), n_(L+2), n_(2L)},{n_(2L+1), n_(2L+2), . . . , n_(3L)}, . . . , {n_(N-L+1), n_(N-L+2), . .. , n_(N)}. Alternatively, when a VRB index set of N VRBs is given as{n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(N-1)} candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregationlevel L may be defined as {n₀, n₁, . . . n_(L−1)}, {n_(L), n_(L+1), . .. n_(2L−1)}, {n_(2L), n_(2L+2), . . . , n_(3L-1)}, . . . {n_(N-L),n_(N-L+1), . . . , n_(N-1)}.

When candidate R-PDCCH positions or a search space of each aggregationlevel have been determined as described above, a set of R-PDCCH startpositions may be provided for each aggregation level. When a set ofstart positions for aggregation level L is referred to as Set L, a setof start positions for each aggregation level may be configured suchthat Set 1={n_(1,1), n_(2,1), . . . , n_(N,1)}, Set 2={n_(1,2), n_(2,2),. . . , n_(N,2)}, Set 4={n_(1,4), n_(2,4), . . . , n_(N,4)}, . . . .Here, although a set of start positions of each aggregation level may beconfigured to be mutually exclusive, each set may share some elements orone set may include another set in order to efficiently utilizeresources and to reduce signaling overhead. For example, Set 1 mayinclude Set 2 or Set 1 may include Set 4. In this case, Set 2 may notnecessarily include Set 4.

In addition, a set of start positions of each aggregation level may beset so as to satisfy a predetermined relationship between the startposition sets of aggregation levels in order to further reduce overheadof signaling which indicates the search space. In the case in which sucha relationship is defined and applied, the receiving side can determinesignaling information of another set when signaling information of oneset has been provided to the receiving side.

In order to reduce signaling overhead, it is also possible to signalonly the start position and length of a search space rather than todirectly signal RB positions which constitute the search space.Accordingly, it is possible to more efficiently perform a resourcemultiplexing operation with the existing downlink resource allocationscheme.

In addition, it is possible to apply a method in which only one startposition set is defined and the value of element n of the set is set andinterpreted as indicating the start position and length. For example,elements of such a set may have values of 0 to 119 as shown in thefollowing Table 4 and each element may be set to indicate acorresponding start position (S) and length (L).

TABLE 4 S L 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 2 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3 30 31 32 3334 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 4 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 5657 58 59 5 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 6 75 76 77 78 7980 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 7 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101102 103 104 8 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118119 9 119 118 117 116 115 114 113 112 111 110 109 108 107 106 105 10 104103 102 101 100 99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 11 89 88 87 86 85 84 83 8281 80 79 78 77 76 75 12 74 73 72 71 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 1359 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 14 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 3736 35 34 33 32 31 30 15 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15

For example, when an element of the set has a value of 47, this mayindicate that the start position S is 2 and the length L is 4. The valueof length L of “4” also indicates that the search space is a searchspace of aggregation level 4. For example, if the element 47 (i.e., theelement having a value of “47”) is given when RB indices (VRB indices,PRD indices, or arbitrary RB indices) which indicate RBs constituting anR-PDCCH search space are configured as {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, . . . },it may be interpreted (or determined) that RBs corresponding to RBindices 2, 3, 4, and 5 constitute a search space of aggregation level 4.In the case in which such a set is configured, there is no need toconfigure an individual set of each aggregation level and there is alsono need to provide additional information for discriminating the searchspace of each aggregation level.

The eNodeB may transmit information indicating which R-PDCCHtransmission scheme is used among the two R-PDCCH transmission schemesdescribed above (i.e., the frequency localized scheme and the frequencydistributed scheme) to the RN through a higher layer signal.Alternatively, the eNodeB may not provide information indicating theR-PDCCH transmission scheme to the RN but instead the RN may operate toperform blind decoding on both R-PDCCH transmission schemes to determinewhich transmission scheme is used among the two transmission schemes.For example, a part of the entire search space of aggregation level 2may be configured as resources of the same RBG and the remaining partmay be configured as resources of different RBGs and the RN may performblind decoding on the assumption that both transmission schemes areused.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for transmittingand receiving an R-PDCCH.

In step S2810, an RN may determine candidate positions of an R-PDCCHwhich is transmitted in a first slot and a second slot of a downlinksubframe. For example, candidate R-PDCCH positions may be set as a VRBset including N VRBs which may be provided to the RN through a higherlayer signal. Since one candidate R-PDCCH position of a higheraggregation level may be constructed of 2 adjacent candidate positionsamong candidate R-PDCCH positions of a lower aggregation level, the RNmay determine candidate R-PDCCH positions of the higher aggregationlevel from the VRB set without receiving any signaling. Specifically,upon acquiring information regarding the VRB set, the RN may assignnumbers {n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(N-1)} to VRB indices, starting from thelowest VRB index and ending with the highest VRB index, and may thendetermine candidate R-PDCCH positions of each aggregation level L asVRBs of {n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(L−1)}, {n_(L), n_(L+1), . . . , n_(2L−1)},{n_(2L), n_(2L+2), . . . n_(3L−1)}, . . . {n_(N-L), n_(N-L+1), . . . ,n_(N-1)}. Here, the same VRB set may be set in the first slot and thesecond slot of the downlink subframe.

In step S2820, the RN may monitor whether or not an R-PDCCH is beingtransmitted in a PRB mapped to a VRB that has been determined as acandidate R-PDCCH position in step S2810. For example, the PRB and theVRB may be determined according to the DVRB mapping rule and thedistributed VRB-to-PRB mapping relationship may be provided to the RNthrough a higher layer signal.

In step S2830, upon determining through monitoring that an R-PDCCH isbeing transmitted, the RN may receive downlink control informationincluded in the R-PDCCH. The downlink control information may bedownlink allocation information or uplink grant information, thedownlink allocation information may be included in the R-PDCCHtransmitted in the first slot, and the uplink grant information may beincluded in the R-PDCCH transmitted in the second slot. Here, theR-PDCCH for the RN is not interleaved with an R-PDCCH for another RN.That is, it is assumed in the example of the present invention that anR-PDCCH of only one RN is present in one RB.

Each of the various embodiments of the present invention described abovemay be independently applied or 2 or more thereof may be simultaneouslyapplied to the RN R-PDCCH monitoring and reception method according tothe present invention described above with reference to FIG. 28 andredundant descriptions are omitted herein for clear explanation of thepresent invention.

Although the various examples of the present invention have beendescribed above mainly with reference to control channel transmissionfrom an eNodeB to an RN, it will be apparent to those skilled in the artthat the principles suggested by the present invention may be applied toan arbitrary downlink transmission entity (eNodeB or RN) and anarbitrary downlink reception entity (UE or RN). For example, suggestionsof the present invention associated with downlink transmission from aneNodeB to an RN may be equally applied to downlink transmission from aneNodeB to a UE or from an RN to a UE. In addition, for example,suggestions of the present invention associated with reception of adownlink from an eNodeB by an RN may be equally applied to reception ofa downlink from an eNodeB by a UE or reception of a downlink from an RNby a UE. Specifically, the various embodiments suggested by the presentinvention may be equally applied to an embodiment in which, when anarbitrary downlink reception entity performs blind decoding of a controlchannel (for example, an advanced-PDCCH) in a first slot and/or a secondslot of a downlink subframe, the downlink reception entity operates todetermine a candidate position at which the control channel can betransmitted and to monitor the control channel to receive and acquiredownlink control information through the control channel.

FIG. 29 illustrates a configuration of an eNodeB and an RN according tothe present invention.

As shown in FIG. 29, an eNodeB 2910 according to the present inventionmay include a reception module 2911, a transmission module 2912, aprocessor 2913, a memory 1914, and multiple antennas 2915. The multipleantennas 2915 indicate that the eNodeB supports MIMO transmission andreception. The reception module 2911 may receive various uplink signals,data, and information from a UE or an RN. The transmission module 2912may transmit various downlink signals, data, and information to the UEor RN. The processor 2913 may control overall operation of the eNodeB2910.

The eNodeB 2910 according to an embodiment of the present invention maybe configured so as to transmit a control channel to an arbitraryreception entity. The processor 2913 of the eNodeB may be configured soas to provide a set of VRBs at candidate positions at which a controlchannel can be transmitted to a downlink reception entity whentransmitting the control channel in a first slot and/or a second slot ofa downlink subframe. When the eNodeB transmits downlink controlinformation (a downlink allocation and/or an uplink grant) through acontrol channel, the downlink reception entity may acquire downlinkcontrol information through the control channel by performing blinddecoding at each candidate position at which the control channel can betransmitted.

The processor 2913 of the eNodeB 2910 may also perform a function suchas arithmetic processing on information received by the eNodeB 2910,information to be externally transmitted, or the like and the memory2914 may store arithmetically processed information or the like for apredetermined time and may be replaced with a component such as a buffer(not shown).

As shown in FIG. 29, the RN 2920 according to the present invention mayinclude a reception module 2921, a transmission module 2922, a processor2923, a memory 1914, and multiple antennas 2925. The multiple antennas2925 indicate that the RN supports MIMO transmission and reception. Thereception module 2921 may include a first reception module and a secondreception module. The first reception module may receive variousdownlink signals, data, and information from the eNodeB and the secondreception module may receive various uplink signals, data, andinformation from a UE. The transmission module 2922 may include a firsttransmission module and a second transmission module. The firsttransmission module may transmit various uplink signals, data, andinformation to the eNodeB and the second transmission module maytransmit various downlink signals, data, and information to the UE. Theprocessor 2923 may control overall operation of the RN 2920.

The RN 2920 according to an embodiment of the present invention may beconfigured so as to receive a downlink control channel. The processor2923 of the RN may be configured so as to determine candidate positionsat which an R-PDCCH is transmitted in a first slot and a second slot ofa downlink subframe. In addition, the processor 2923 may be configuredso as to monitor whether or not the R-PDCCH is being transmitted at thedetermined candidate positions. The processor 2923 may be configured soas to receive, upon determining through monitoring that an R-PDCCH isbeing transmitted, downlink control information included in the R-PDCCHthrough the reception module 2921. Here, the candidate R-PDCCH positionsmay be set as a VRB set including N VRBs. In addition, one candidateR-PDCCH position for a higher aggregation level may be configuredthrough 2 adjacent candidate positions from among candidate R-PDCCHpositions for a lower aggregation level.

The processor 2923 of the RN 2920 may also perform a function such asarithmetic processing on information received by the RN 2920,information to be externally transmitted, or the like and the memory2924 may store arithmetically processed information or the like for apredetermined time and may be replaced with a component such as a buffer(not shown).

The configurations of the eNodeB and RN described above may beimplemented such that each of the various embodiments of the presentinvention described above may be independently applied or 2 or morethereof may be simultaneously applied to the eNodeB and RN and redundantdescriptions are omitted herein for clear explanation of the presentinvention.

Although the exemplary description of FIG. 29 has been given withreference to MIMO transmission between the eNodeB and the RN, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that the description of the eNodeB2910 of FIG. 29 may be applied to an arbitrary downlink transmissionentity (eNodeB or RN) and the description of the RN 2920 of FIG. 29 mayalso be applied to an arbitrary downlink reception entity (UE or RN).For example, the configuration of the eNodeB which is configured so asto perform downlink transmission to the RN as described above as anexample with reference to FIG. 29 may be equally applied to an eNodeBthat performs downlink transmission to the RN or the RN that performsdownlink transmission to a UE. In addition, for example, theconfiguration of the RN which is configured so as to perform downlinkreception from the eNodeB as described above as an example withreference to FIG. 29 may be equally applied to a UE that performsdownlink reception from the eNodeB or a UE that performs downlinkreception from the RN. Specifically, the various embodiments suggestedby the present invention may be equally applied to an embodiment inwhich a downlink reception entity is configured so as to determinecandidate positions at which an advanced downlink control channel can betransmitted in a first slot and/or a second slot of a downlink subframeand to monitor the control channel to receive and acquire downlinkcontrol information through the control channel.

The embodiments of the present invention described above may beimplemented by various means. For example, the embodiments of thepresent invention may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software, orany combination thereof.

In the case in which the present invention is implemented by hardware,the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented by one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits(ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal ProcessingDevices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field ProgrammableGate Arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers,microprocessors, or the like.

In the case in which the present invention is implemented by firmware orsoftware, the methods according to the embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented in the form of modules, processes,functions, or the like which perform the features or operationsdescribed below. Software code can be stored in a memory unit so as tobe executed by a processor. The memory unit may be located inside oroutside the processor and can communicate data with the processorthrough a variety of known means.

The detailed description of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention has been given to enable those skilled in the art to implementand practice the invention. Although the invention has been describedwith reference to the exemplary embodiments, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that various modifications and variations can be made inthe present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of theinvention described in the appended claims. For example, those skilledin the art may combine the structures described in the above embodimentsin a variety of ways. Accordingly, the invention should not be limitedto the specific embodiments described herein, but should be accorded thebroadest scope consistent with the principles and novel featuresdisclosed herein.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention maybe embodied in other specific forms than those set forth herein withoutdeparting from the spirit and essential characteristics of the presentinvention. The above description is therefore to be construed in allaspects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the inventionshould be determined by reasonable interpretation of the appended claimsand all changes coming within the equivalency range of the invention areintended to be embraced within the scope of the invention. The inventionshould not be limited to the specific embodiments described herein, butshould be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles andnovel features disclosed herein. In addition, it will be apparent thatclaims which are not explicitly dependent on each other can be combinedto provide an embodiment or new claims can be added through amendmentafter this application is filed.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The embodiments of the present invention described above may be appliedto various mobile communication systems.

1. A method for a relay to receive downlink control information from abase station through a Relay-Physical Downlink Control Channel(R-PDCCH), the method comprising: determining a candidate position atwhich the R-PDCCH is transmitted in a first slot and a second slot of adownlink subframe; monitoring whether or not the R-PDCCH is beingtransmitted at the determined candidate position; and receiving, upondetermining through the monitoring that the R-PDCCH is beingtransmitted, the downlink control information included in the R-PDCCH,wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position is set as a Virtual ResourceBlock (VRB) set including N VRBs, and one candidate R-PDCCH position ofa higher aggregation level includes a combination of 2 adjacentcandidate positions among candidate R-PDCCH positions of a loweraggregation level.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the VRBsof the VRB set are assigned numbers {n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(N-1)}, startingfrom a lowest VRB index and ending with a highest VRB index, andrespective candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregation levels L aredetermined as VRBs of {n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(L−1)}, {n_(L)n_(L+1), . . . ,n_(2L-1)}, {n_(2L), n_(2L+2), . . . , n_(3L−1)}, . . . {n_(N-L),n_(N-L+1), . . . , n_(N-1)}.
 3. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe R-PDCCH is not interleaved with another R-PDCCH.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position isdetermined according to distributed VRB-to-Physical Resource Block (PRB)mapping.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the VRB set and theVRB-to-PRB mapping are set by a higher layer signal.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the downlink control information isdownlink allocation information included in an R-PDCCH transmitted inthe first slot or uplink grant information included in an R-PDCCHtransmitted in the second slot.
 7. The method according to claim 1,wherein the same VRB set is set in the first slot and the second slot ofthe downlink subframe.
 8. A relay for performing downlink signal in awireless communication system, the relay comprising: a reception modulefor receiving a downlink signal from a base station; a transmissionmodule for transmitting an uplink signal to the base station; and aprocessor for controlling the relay including the reception module andthe transmission module, wherein the processor is configured todetermine a candidate position at which a Relay-Physical DownlinkControl Channel (R-PDCCH) is transmitted in a first slot and a secondslot of a downlink subframe, to monitor whether or not the R-PDCCH isbeing transmitted at the determined candidate position, and to receive,upon determining through the monitoring that the R-PDCCH is beingtransmitted, the downlink control information included in the R-PDCCHthrough the reception module, wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position isset as a Virtual Resource Block (VRB) set including N VRBs, and onecandidate R-PDCCH position of a higher aggregation level includes acombination of 2 adjacent candidate positions among candidate R-PDCCHpositions of a lower aggregation level.
 9. The relay according to claim8, wherein the VRBs of the VRB set are assigned numbers {n₀, n₁, . . . ,n_(N-1)}, starting from a lowest VRB index and ending with a highest VRBindex, and respective candidate R-PDCCH positions of aggregation levelsL are determined as VRBs of {n₀, n₁, . . . , n_(L−1)}, {n_(L), n_(L+1),. . . , , n_(2L−1)}, {n_(2L), n_(2L+2), n_(3L−1)}, {n_(N-L), n_(N-L+1),. . . , n_(N-1)}.
 10. The relay according to claim 8, wherein theR-PDCCH is not interleaved with another R-PDCCH.
 11. The relay accordingto claim 8, wherein the candidate R-PDCCH position is determinedaccording to distributed VRB-to-Physical Resource Block (PRB) mapping.12. The relay according to claim 8, wherein the VRB set and theVRB-to-PRB mapping are set by a higher layer signal.
 13. The relayaccording to claim 8, wherein the downlink control information isdownlink allocation information included in an R-PDCCH transmitted inthe first slot or uplink grant information included in an R-PDCCHtransmitted in the second slot.
 14. The relay according to claim 8,wherein the same VRB set is set in the first slot and the second slot ofthe downlink subframe.